Capitalism’s had a rough time recently. First it was Newt Gingrich attacking the underlying principles behind the free market… and now, billionaire Richard Branson’s on the attack. In a recent op-ed in The Telegraph, Sir Richard asserted, “The focus on profit has caused significant negative, unintended consequences.”
Funny, isn’t it – once he’s made his OWN profits, it becomes bad for others to do so. That’s not very nice, is it?
Of course, Sir Richard isn’t the first person to try and keep others out of the billionaires club… our own government is trying to do so as well.
Ironically, the impact of many of President Obama’s proposed soak-the-rich tax schemes is that it will keep the upwardly mobile from accumulating wealth – while not really “soaking” the very rich at all. Jim Pethokoukis has a great chart over at the American Enterprise Institute’s blog that shows the actual impact of the Buffett Rule:
I recommend checking out his full post – but man, it's frustrating that the Administration's fervent push to punish the wealthy won't even do what they want it to! After all, as Ryan Ellis at Americans for Tax Reform has explained, targeting tax increases to those making over $250,000 actually affects 8 million small businesses and entrepreneurs. The government seems to be flagrantly overlooking the fact that nearly all great American companies once started out as small businesses – and in taxing the "rich," what they're really doing is eating into those evil, dastardly profits that are needed to grow, expand, and succeed. Way to go, government!