For all you “Soak the Rich” types, one thing that should be
explained is that everybody has something in the stock market. There are
millions of small investors when compared to the super rich we keep hearing
about. There are municipalities across this nation that have money in the stock
market whether it be in floating bonds to pay for school systems and local
infrastructure or town and city pension plans. They’re in there. And the small investors,
people who have under $100,000.00 in scattered across different stocks like
Verizon and Columbia Gas, aren’t exactly what you call wheeler-dealers in the
stock market. For most people it has taken a working career to accumulate this
sum.
Utilities are highly regulated and their stocks don’t swing
far up or down but remain a steady source of income for retired people who have
worked their whole lives to build up a nest egg. Many retired people have at
least part of their savings in the stock market and it’s not particularly big
money but along with a 401k and their Social Security, retired folks can live
the way they were living prior to stopping working.
I want to add that these were also the people who the
government stiffed out of their savings by taking over General Motors and
royally screwing the small investor while practically handing the GM Union the
company. Not rich people by any stretch of the imagination and actually many
retired GM employees to boot!
It is the middle class investors who are the people most
hurt by taxes on dividends and capital gains taxes, not the super-rich or the
just plain rich who can either afford to pay the tax or more likely avoid them
altogether. It’s Ma and Pa that are afraid to sell when capital gains rates go
up or get whacked when they have to pay the higher rates on their dividends.
If you’re working and contributing to a 401k, you are going
to see higher administration costs and fees. If you’re a small stock holder,
you’re going to see a tax increase bite into your investment.
What’s that you’re saying? You don’t own any stocks in rich
Wall Street traded companies so screw all the people who do? Here’s news for
you: Stock investment has been very easy
for people for quite a while now. With an initial $250.00 a person can buy a
big or small company’s stock direct without a broker and reinvest the dividends
to purchase more stock so when it comes time to retire, they can then start to
draw dividends to subsidize their other retirement savings. Many millions of
people, regular middle-class people with jobs, have taken advantage of this
savings option. If you have a bank account, you can have a stock account.
Plus, your private 401k as well as your teacher’s pension,
your DPW pension, your Police and Firefighter’s pensions are in the stock
market.
Now the government is going after this too to fund their unwieldy
and on the verge of collapse welfare state.
But even if they do, it won’t be enough. Once the government
gets their tax hikes, it won’t do anything to bring down the massive debt it
has accumulated in just the last year, never mind the last 8 years. Even if the
government declares everybody with a job “rich”, it won’t be enough. There just
aren’t enough rich folks to take care of everybody else.
So when you hear people in government talking about raising
the capital gains tax rates, they’re really talking about YOU.
Who did you vote for again?