Tax Policy

Obama is suggesting he'll raise capital gains tax rates, perhaps up to 20%, on people earning more than 250,000.  Why stop there?

Why should we tax perspiration more than speculation?  Is there a shortage of investment funds in America, and too much work being done?  Do we need to favor the investor class, over the working class?

The truth is people wealthy enough to make a living in investments have always been a potent force, striving for the best deals, and generally appearing the best dressed and most refined of all petitioners.  The following is from Gouverneur Morris, the person who actually wrote the Constitution ("the finish given to the style and arrangement of the Constitution fairly belongs to the pen of Mr. Morris." --James Madison) and so, whose understanding one must divine if one wants to closely parse its particular turns of phrase.  He said this during the 2nd Constitutional convention, as he described his desire to reserve the Senate for the rich people, and have the House of Representatives watch over them like hawks.  Remember, the Convention then chose him to actually write the Constitution!

[The rich] will have the same effect here as elsewhere if we do not by such a Gov't keep them within their proper sphere. We should remember that the people never act from reason alone. The rich will take advantage of their passions and make these the instruments for oppressing them. The Result of the Contest will be a violent aristocracy, or a more violent despotism. The schemes of the Rich will be favored by the extent of the Country. The people in such distant parts can not communicate & act in concert. They will be the dupes of those who have more Knowledge & intercourse. The only security agst. encroachments will be a select & sagacious body of men, instituted to watch agst. them on all sides.

Admittedly, the people, with the internet, can more easily act in concert now, but, then again, so can the rich.