At an annual meeting for shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha, Nebraska, Warren Buffett, the world’s third richest person said, “When we are asking for shared sacrifice from the American people, I would at least make sure that the people with these huge incomes get taxed at a rate that is commensurate with the rate they got taxed at not long ago.”
That makes a ton of sense. Low tax rates on the rich are job killers. That’s because CEO’s are under more pressure to cut jobs and ship them overseas in order to jack up profits to attract all that excess money. That’s why the Bush tax cuts have been a total disaster. They were the straw that broke our economic back in the USA. You’ll notice job creation since these tax cuts is negative and even worse than that when only private sector job growth is analyzed. This issue is more fully elaborated on in The Rigged Game: Corporate America and a People Betrayed.
Warren Buffett on Shared Sacrifice
Bill Gates and Bono were among the 35,000 people attending this meeting.
Why does paying taxes have to be considered a “sacrifice”? It’s no more that than rent or a mortgage. Taxes constitute the cost of living in and doing regular maintenance on the structure in which we all live. We like to say that our country is exceptional, the greatest, blessed by God. Do you think such a place comes on the cheap? Whatever we want has to be paid for. And the Almighty has not blessed us with His credit card. I think He said, “You’re on your own, dudes.”