>I have an extremely ignorant question--so be nice...but I
>often hear claims that the "rich" never really pay taxes to
>begin with and that any taxes they do have to pay are
>simply added to the cost to the consumer? So in a way, we
>the consumer (worker) is being taxed multiple times, so any
>'tax cut' for the rich is moot because they don't pay taxes
>to begin with????
>
>I know, I'm talking out my ass
If it were true, the "rich" would never complain about taxes, they wouldn't care how high their taxes were because they could just pass it on to the "consumer". Which clearly isn't the case, so the analysis is very patently flawed. There's another objection that spring to mind about that conception though.
First, where do these "consumers" get the money to pay unlimited add-on costs of consumer items? Their wages, which they have to extract from the "rich", would have to be unlimited and if they were unlimited it would be a vicious circle for the "rich". (As seen in the late Keynsian inflationary spiral.)
Obviously, the original wealth which is the basis from which taxes are paid, is created exclusively by the "not-rich", which is to say the working class. The "not rich" created all the wealth to start with. But that isn't to say that the rich don't nevertheless pay taxes, it just means they pay taxes out of the wealth they confiscate from those who create it.
They would have confiscated it anyhow and they already confiscate the maximum possible surplus value from their workers, so any taxes that have to be paid must be and are paid by the wealthy. There isn't anywhere else for it to come from.
It is not the "rich" who don't pay taxes to start with, it is the working class who don't pay taxes. We have an interest in how it is spent, but our interest in which sections of the ruling class finish up paying the bill, and in what manner, is peripheral.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas
PS: and it's "arse", unless you are really claiming to be talking out of your donkey. let's call a spade a spade and call an arse an arse. ;-)