We Need to Raise Taxes to Save Capitalism

Taxes are the price of civilization. At least that’s the the story the IRS is sticking to when they had that carved outside their office in Washington D.C.

Capitalism is coming under fire from a variety of corners. Millennials are not identifying as republicans or democrats, but rather as socialists or communists and Occupy Wall Street has put terminology like “1%” and income inequality into the public vocabulary. Capitalism has come under fire due to its inequality and it’s inability to provide the basic needs of all citizens. However, there is a fairly easy way to solve this problem 

It’s Time to Tax Wealth

More services and less taxes are one of the favorite promises that politicians perennially promise but don’t deliver on. While it would be nice for them to quit promising things that they can’t deliver on, it’s not really their fault. The math just doesn’t add up. Getting something for little effort plays into the human evolutionary capacity to preserve energy as an apex predator. However, that’s not how the world works and that is certainly true in the civilization where we live. If we want something to happen then it must be paid for with actual money paid from actual people. 

The chief problem in our modern economy? There are lots of people that aren’t paying taxes. They are taking from the services but aren’t paying anything back into the system. What can and should be sustainable as a society is slowly but surely falling apart.

We have to tax wealth in order to save capitalism

Capital is What Keeps the Global Economy Moving

You can create a modern and sophisticated economy like we have with the mechanism of capital (as stored resources) and credit (investing resources for future return). However, in our modern economy capital represents and outsized portion of economic activity. However, real people and real economic activity underlies that. Capital, as an institution and economy force, can only contribute to the greater economy through taxes. Most capital is not properly taxed and therefore capital, as a percentage of our economy, simply isn’t paying it’s fair share. Those who derive their income from wealth and assets will have to either deal with populist uprisings and deal with popular unhappiness or start paying their fair share of the expenses of civilization. Without a change, capitalism simply won’t be able to survive in it’s current form. The physical systems that support it will simply crumble.