Why do you refuse to acknowledge that the investment class is already doing better now than ever? What could be more of a hint than that to stop coddling them? Like I said this is a consumption based economy. Stimulating supply side means dick if you ignore demand side.
Yes, the stimulus in demand would run out by extending unemployment benefits, but it would be open ended with tax cuts for the middle class and raising the min wage. Yes, there would be an initial cost to capital by raising it and a few thousand jobs would be lost, but all of that would be regained by the open ended boost to people's pay checks. Eventually prices would go down and jobs would be created.
We don't have "classes" in America. That's a concept in many socialist countries but not here. In America, we have one class... Americans. Some Americans invest wealth they have already earned and paid taxes on. That's a GOOD thing, we NEED that to happen. We SHOULD coddle them, keep encouraging them to invest, do things to make them want to invest more. This represents money that can be used to create new jobs. Discouraging investment by taxing it more is not going to increase anyone's paycheck.
I am all in favor of lowering taxes on anyone, including the middle class. But the middle class are the bulk of the tax base and half are already paying very little income tax. Cuts there are going to have to include cuts in our spending. That means we can't extend unemployment benefits or create more entitlement programs.
And again... let's be honest, when most "middle class" families realize a small gain in income, whether through a wage increase or lower taxes, what do they generally do with that money? They find something to spend it on. This doesn't create any new jobs, it simply creates demand for a supply that is already there. Which one of the following is better: A) 100 million working with a $40 week pay increase, or B) 150 million working without an increase? Keeping in mind, the 100 million in example A are going to have to subsidize 50 million who aren't working.
There is absolutely no need to cut taxes for the job creators. The bulk of the revenue must come from them. A progressive tax system isn't about what's fair but what's realistic. Realistically the wealthy must be taxed the most because they have the most money. It's not about punishing them. It's about what makes sense.
Trust me if I thought they were over taxed I would be all for cutting their taxes. They aren't though. Revenue as a percentage of GDP is at 16%. That's near a historic low. We need to raise taxes on the wealthy. Obviously not by too much but right now revenue isn't hwre it should be.
You're jumping all over the board. Are we having a conversation about increasing the wages of people or increasing revenue stream to federal government? It doesn't matter, I can argue either one, but these are two seperate arguments.
To increase wages, we have to increase demand for labor. That means, we have to create more jobs than there are people to do them. We don't currently have that problem, we have the opposite... we have record unemployment levels and no new jobs being created, while opening our borders to millions more who are seeking jobs.
Now, I presented a suggestion as to how we might go about creating this massive number of new jobs, but for whatever reason, you've decided to revert back to "war on the rich" mode and argue taxation. Raising top marginal income tax rates doesn't help anyone's wages improve. In fact, it doesn't even help to generate more revenue when accounted for with GDP growth. It always results in less revenue because the high income wage earner doesn't HAVE to earn income. The only way we've ever realized more revenue by raising taxes is to raise taxes on the middle class and broaden the base. But we don't need to increase revenue, we need to cut spending and cut tax rates.
A progressive tax system is okay, it's what we currently have. The high income earners are paying more in taxes as a percentage than anyone else. You act as if that is not the case and we need to fix it. There are wealthy people investing, and you want to zap them with high tax rates too! Well... that's where all your money is to create the new jobs which we need in order to improve wages. So what do you want to do? Do you want to improve wages or do you want to punish the wealthy? ...before you answer, keep in mind... you aren't actually punishing the wealthy, they are two steps ahead of you. Whatever you tax, they'll stop doing it... or at least stop doing it here. If you want to prevent them from doing it elsewhere, you can do that, but there are serious ramifications there as well.