Who Should Pay?

       Here's a case for capital gains taxes. If you look at the way income has tracked over the last few decades, you realize the capital has increased it's share of income by double digits, which is great if you have capital invested. During the same period, labor hasn't done nearly as well. In fact labor has stagnated to the point that folks are earning roughly what they did in the early 1990s. But in those two decades inflation has grown, again, by double digits. So you're effectively earning what you did, or would have, in the 1970s.
       Now any proponent of capital will tell you that a lot has to do with offshoring of factories and jobs. They're also likely to explain that robotics is partly responsible. They just don't need as many people to do the job any more. And that's true.
       The thing is, though, that doesn't change the fact that capital keeps earning a larger and larger piece of the pie. People who are still working in high tech positions just aren't earning what they should be. How come? Because capital keeps getting better and better tax advantages, while labor keeps getting stuck with the tab.
       So if you can protect more of your capital, if you can keep more of your capital safe from taxes, that gives you more capital to earn you even more income. But if you have to depend on your personal labors, you don't get that same advantage.
       Two choices offer two different approaches. You can more heavily tax capital to share with labor, or you can break up the monopolies that allow for the creation of more wealth among a few, and you can raise minimum wage to a living wage.
     
But you still must take away the financial advantages of outsourcing, or job laundering, like tax deductions for the expense of shipping that job to China. And greater tariffs on shipping the finished product back here. And a tax on removing your income or wealth to a tax haven. One thing's for sure. If we don't reverse the trend, America will become a third world country that still thinks it's a world leader.