This is a great story about taxes: 10 Celebrities Who Don’t Live As Lavishly As They Could. Think the rich have enough? Really. Look at what Leonardo Dicaprio says:
“I don’t spend money on a lot. Money is very important to me because it allows me the freedom to choose what I want to do as an actor and, more importantly, because I want to accumulate enough so that one day I can do something really great and beneficial for other people, for the environment, and for children.”
Now, he may use that money to reach beyond the grave and hurt my children's freedom, and yet I still say it is okay for him to keep what he has earned and spend it all as he wishes. It is not my money, or the collective’s money. It is his money. He earned it. Yes, he used the roads I helped build. But he likely paid more for those roads than almost everyone else using them.
To take the fruit of one’s labor and have a third party decide whom to give it to is morally wrong! Leo’s time, effort and industry is reflected by his wealth. He has a unique talent, worked hard, and earned his money. Like millions of others, many not in his tax bracket, he saves to make the world a better place. Some do it by helping their kids through college, by buying a new house, by starting a business or taking care of an elderly parent. Is their goal less than his? Are his dreams more or less than theirs? No. Just different. Each pursuing their own version of happiness.
A flat tax is fair and equitable. The PROGRESSIVE income tax is not charity - it is criminal. When the State Department cannot account for billions of our hard earned money, and the Pentagon cannot account for $2.3 TRILLION in spending (as of 9.10.01) we would all stop paying this "charity" if jail or guns weren't forcing us to. Organizations like the Red Cross or the church would be behind bars if they ran their charity accounting and spending like the federal government.
This is the problem. They don't believe you or I should be able to choose how to spend out money. To quote Theodore Roosevelt: "I don't begrudge a man his fortune as long as it was honorably earned and well spent." Well spent? Do we really need to justify our spending? Oh wait! Yes, they already ask us through the IRS.
Strange bedfellows? You bet. The left and right can both agree on this: the government is inefficient and the worst investment in people and good will ever devised.
Find those like Leonardo Dicaprio who want to keep their own money and invest it in ways that actually improve people's lives, be it "save the whales" or the NRA.
It is your money and it should be your choice how it gets spent. Demand it.