How many times have you heard someone say “the wealthy need to pay their fair share.” I know I have heard president Biden mention it many times, and make the claims that all Trump wants to do is give tax cuts to the wealthy. If someone didn’t know any better and believed the wealthy people in this country weren’t paying their fair share then of course we want their taxes to be raised, not cut. However, just because wealthy people are wealthy doesn’t mean they don’t pay their fair share in taxes. It seems like President Biden wants to continue to increase their taxes until they are no longer wealthy. This is supposed to be the land of opportunity and now President Biden, who has passed the torch to Kamala Harris, wants to penalize those who took advantage of those opportunities.

The first thing that bothers me about this statement is that the wealthy do pay their fair share. They currently pay 3 times more than the percentage rate of the low class. The poorest in this country pay an income tax rate of 10% while the wealthiest pay 37%. And yes there are tax right offs and deductions that the wealthy take, but they are still paying taxes on every purchase they make, property taxes, and state taxes just like everyone else. If there is anyone reading this thinking that the only reason I am saying this is because I am rich myself, I assure you you are completely wrong. I am what they consider low class, I barely make my ends meet and struggle every month just to get by. I am also a college student who is earning their bachelor degree in Accounting & Finance and understand how finances work and what makes sense and what doesn’t.

Just because someone works hard and ends up with a good job that makes him wealthy doesn’t mean he should be penalized for that. And to say the wealthy don’t pay their fair share is just a completely untrue statement. If it were to be fair then everyone would pay the same percentage of their income no matter what they make. But the wealthy can afford to pay a little more in taxes so they do, but everytime the country needs money the solution can’t be to raise their taxes. When Donald Trump was in office for his first term he did have a plan that started to work until Covid upended everything. Now nobody is willing to look at how it did help the economy of this country and have gone back to wanting to tax the wealthy.

Trump did request tax cuts, but it wasn’t for the wealthy. He imposed giving tax cuts to corporations and at first impression many people will probably think this is the same thing as giving a tax break to the wealthy but I will tell you why I think it is a plan that leads to success. I think after you get done reading this you still may not agree with me but I am sure it will make sense and you will understand the idea behind it. But I will first discuss why continuing to tax the wealthy won’t work, and it will eventually trickle down to raising taxes on everyone.

Continuing to tax the rich can only last for so long. Eventually you aren’t going to be able to tax them anymore and the middle and low classes will be forced to have their taxes raised. The other problem with taxing the wealthy is that it will eventually lead to less jobs. By continuing to raise taxes of the wealthy and corporations they will eventually leave and go to where taxes aren’t as high. Many businesses have already gone to different countries for the lesser tax rates, and the higher the taxes get the more the corporations will leave. This country used to be one of the most productive, self sustaining counties in the world, and one of the main reasons we aren’t anymore is because of the constant tax raising,

The next question you might ask is how does cutting taxes of corporations help the economy and the country. If you think back and remember when this was implemented during Trumps first term, those corporations invested that money back into their businesses. These tax cuts created an influx of funds that was being used to invest back into this country. This created jobs, new businesses, and expansions, which is the best way to help the economy in the country. This will eventually lead to this country becoming self reliant again instead of relying on the imports of other countries.

In 2019 Amazon wanted to make their headquarters in Long Island, NY, which would have brought over 25,000 jobs with them. However, part of the deal was that Amazon wanted $3 billion in tax breaks. Although most people agreed with this decision, including then governor Andrew Cuomo, there was one voice who completely disagreed with the decision. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fought to not give Amazon the tax breaks, stating “we could invest those $3 Billion dollars in our district ourselves if we wanted to.” The problem with this statement is that there wasn’t $3 Billion. This is the problem we have in our country and why everyone seems to think the solution is to tax the rich. If this Amazon deal went through that $3 Billion would of been regenerated many times over, and not just from Amazon.

When a big company like that moves to a location that offers that many jobs it creates a domino effect that will help the economy and the people. That many jobs means that people will move to that area to obtain employment and with a rise in population means more housing needed to be built, more small businesses opening up, and more revenue being generated. The tax cut they would have received would mean that Amazon would have more money to invest in their business that will create jobs and with the population increase there will be many more jobs available in other sectors. More local businesses will open up to supply the demand that comes with more people. That then increases the tax revenue that will help the economy and community, as well as the increased demand in jobs.

Just because New York wasn’t willing to give Amazon the tax break doesn’t mean that another state will, which is exactly what happened. This will continue to happen if corporations are forced to pay more taxes. Those tax increases are going to trickle down and effect the employees and the economy. Those corporations will move to other areas where taxes are cheaper. As we saw when Trump gave the corporations a tax cut, that extra money was put back into the businesses that allowed them to grow and create even more jobs. As more jobs are growing and being created that also creates competition. With competition comes companies that are willing to pay their employees more to stay ahead of the competition. If there is no competition and jobs are scarce people will be forced to obtain employment with any pay they can find. It takes away their choices.

Another benefit of companies being able to invest in their own company is becoming a nation that is self reliant. We currently get a lot of our products from overseas, where it is much cheaper. America is no longer the leading nation in industrialization. If all these jobs came back to this country the increased job demand would cause an increase in pay wages. This would have the effect of adding a lot more tax revenue into the country, one that would have a long lasting effect. Increasing taxes on the wealthy isn’t a solution that is sustainable and will hurt everyone. We need to start looking at this with a more common sense, sustainable view instead of punishing the people who are willing to work hard, the ones who keep this country going.