If you made $10 million a year, and the government already took $3-4 million of it, what would motivate you to give more to charity?
The problem is the income tax system and a massive federal nanny-state government. Reduce the size of the federal government, abolish the income tax, create a fair consumption tax at the retail level with set exemptions for the necessities of life, and my guess is, the rich would then support the charitable causes that truly help the needy by leaps and bounds.
You can keep believing that a gov't made up of bureaucrats will make better decisions with stolen tax money, but I do not see it. There are better ways, but they don't allow those in DC to live like billionaires, and that is why they will never change.
IF we applied laws correctly, and did not let anyone without a valid and real social security card tap the system for benefits, then that number could be tied to everyone, and a new national ID card issued. Don't have a national ID card, then you are flat out of luck for buying or selling anything. That gets rid of all the illegals.
Next, since everyone now has a card, and the gov't obviously has the computing power to do anything they want, you give every true citizen a set of exemptions from the consumption tax. The card is scanned, and their exemption amount, in each category, is lowered, until it no longer exists.
Example -- Person #1 makes $15,000 a year. Everyone receives a hypothetical exemption for $12,000 a year for housing or rent. Person #1 will pay no consumption tax on their house payments or their rent.
Everyone receives a set exemption amount for food. Let's say $300 a month. Remember, even children have a national ID card linked to their exemptions. Person #1 would pay no consumption tax when buying food for themselves, until they spend over $300 in any one month. They can use multiple family member cards to do the monthly shopping to avoid paying tax on a set amount of food. If, however, person #1 is irresponsible, and they take the family out to eat too much, when they cannot afford to, they will hit their limits sooner, and the consumption tax will kick in. Cards can be tagged by age, so that a parent could not buy alcohol with their children's card, etc.
Set amounts of exemptions could be made for the necessities of life -- housing/rent, food, insurance, gas, medical care, utilities, etc. Person #1 would effectively pay no consumption tax on any of their earnings.
Let's look at person #2, Bill Gates. Bill gets the same $12,000 tax-free purchase for a house payment or rent, same $300 for food, etc. Bill wants to buy a $5 million dollar yacht. Let's say the federal consumption tax is 20%. That's $1 million in tax which cannot be avoided or loop-holed or bought away with a donation to a Congress person. Now, Bill is not paying income tax, so if the exemptions are figured properly, and the consumption tax percentage is arrived at in a rational manner to be able to run the government, then it should be no big deal.
Under such a system, if someone who makes $500,000 a year wants to live frugally, in a small house, drive a modest car, take modest vacations, etc., then they should NOT have to pay massive income taxes. This will allow them to either save for their children or future into old age, so the gov't does not have to take care off them so much, or it allows them to put the money to work into a business that creates jobs.
I know I simplify, but a system such as this could be developed pretty easily, and it would be much more fair for the poor, the middle class, the upper middle class, and the rich.
Tell me why this would not work, other than it would cut many useless federal jobs like IRS agents, attorneys, and many federal programs that are not necessary. No tax loopholes. No buying off politicians.
You know why it will never happen? Because this gov't LOVES the current system that can be manipulated so easily with huge bureaucratic nonsense, bills so large no one can read or understand them, and it gives totalitarian powers to many federal agencies that abuse it. It allows those in charge to set their own billionaire lifestyles by robbing the people at will.
Having high income tax rates always screws the middle and upper middle class. It does nothing for the poor criminal trade, and it does nothing for the ultra-rich who can buy their way around this complex system a million ways.
Income taxes are illegal and do not work. With 16 trillion in debt, it's time to admit that and figure out something that is fair and does work.
