Is envy more important than prosperity?
The death tax punishes the very behavior that defines the economic heart and soul of American prosperity.
By Star Parker
UrbanCure.org
Congressman Anthony Weiner is making a name for himself.
The New York Democrat wants taxes raised on wealthy Americans and
is one of the more vocal opponents to the deal that
would retain current tax rates for everyone.
"An estate tax cut for millionaires adds exactly zero jobs. A tax
cut for billionaires -- virtually none," says
Weiner.
But what does Weiner know about job creation, about work, about
being an entrepreneur?
Looking over his resume, you see he's never held a private sector
job.
Right out of college, he went to work on the staff of
then-Congressmen Chuck Schumer, followed by six
years serving on New York's city council, and then
ran for congress in 1999, capturing the seat he
currently holds.
Mr. Weiner is a politically ambitious young man who has built
power and career by confiscating and redistributing
other people's money.
Consider that the wealthy are that Weiner wants to punish.
Thomas Stanley and William Danko wrote a book called "The
Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of
America's Wealthy".
They produced a portrait of who America's millionaires are and
show that by and large these are quiet, understated,
self-reliant Americans who are committed to hard
work, education, and family.
Their portrait shows that 80 percent of our millionaires are
first generation affluent, that less than half
received a cent in inheritance funds, and only 19
percent get any income from a trust fund or estate.
Most Americans - 80 percent -- are not self-employed. But of
those that are, two thirds are our millionaires.
Seventy five percent of these self-employed millionaires are
entrepreneurs and the remaining quarter is
self-employed professionals like doctors and
accountants.
These are overwhelmingly self-made individuals, by large are
founders and proprietors of prosaic businesses like
"welding contractors, auctioneers, rice farmers,
owners of mobile-home parks, pest controllers, coin
and stamp dealers and paving contractors."
Sure, we have high-profile billionaires in America. But most of
America's millionaires, those whose income is in the
$250,000 and above category whose taxes Weiner wants
to raise, are our nation's bread and butter
entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Regarding the estate tax, or what has come to be known as the
death tax, it is probably, of all the ways in which
our government takes revenue, the most immoral.
As noted, 80 percent of millionaires are first generation and two
thirds are entrepreneurs. The death tax punishes the
very behavior that defines the economic heart and
soul of American prosperity.
But perhaps worse, it attacks our most important social
institution -- the American family.
A recent Pew Research Center/Time Magazine report shows the
collapse over the last half century of the
traditional American family.
Today 52 percent of adult Americans are married compared to 72
percent in 1960. Forty one percent of our babies
today are born to unwed mothers compared to five
percent in 1960.
It was once a given in our nation that there were inviolable
truths that precede government. Once most believed
that one of those truths was the integrity of the
American family.
The death tax tells us that that government now supersedes
family. That politicians like Anthony Weiner can go
inside of a family and confiscate the wealth that a
breadwinner has accumulated over a lifetime of hard
work and prevent parents from freely passing the
fruits of their labor on to their children.
Three of four Americans say that the country today is on the
wrong track.
The key question today is where we want to go and what it takes
to get there.
If we want to get back to prosperity, then it should be axiomatic
that protecting freedom, entrepreneurship and family
is the answer. Not the politics of power and envy.