Our current form of capitalism is capitalism, and our current form of government is socialism for the military industrial complex and health care industries, not “the rich”. When including state taxes, the United States has the #1 most progressive tax structure among OECD nations. Our rich pay a greater share of the government’s revenue than do the rich in any other OECD nation. Our rich also receive very little back in direct benefits from the government. What you think you know is wrong.
If there is a fault in our system, it is that it has been getting increasingly rigid in terms of class. It used to be easier for poor people to become rich and for rich people to become poor. This decrease in social mobility correlates with making the tax burden more progressive, or that is to say making the rich pay more in taxes while giving tax breaks to the poor.
In practice, the nations with the highest amount of social mobility are those who have a more flat tax where the poor get soaked but the government directs most of their benefits to the poor. The poor pay a lot but they get back even more while the rich pay less of a share than in the US but get back little or nothing.
The United States, when including state taxes, has the highest aggregate tax burden but instead of providing benefits to our poor, we direct a disproportionate amount to defense spending and health care which is used to keep the world safe. Our military supremacy has been the reason for PAX Americana which has kept the world without a nuclear war. Our healthcare spending creates all the medicines and machines other countries use in their socialized systems. The world is better for the Unites States being as it is it even if our poor are getting a shorter end of the deal than they otherwise would.
Warren Buffet disagrees.
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