THE CHEESE in the MOUSETRAP
Some reading the following will see politics, but you won’t find it in my head. This is how I view logic. Find the causes and the results.
“Tax the rich” is the bait. The person saying it ignores that the rich are already heavily taxed. Further, no matter how much of HIS money is taken, your tax bill won’t be any lower. What do YOU gain?
“Make them pay their fair share,” is soothing to jealous ears until the horrible part is said out loud. The billionaire is ONE person. The ONE person is already paying more in taxes in one year than you will ever earn in your lifetime. Here’s the horrible part: He will receive no more value for his contribution than you will. He uses the same roads, bridges, trash service, airports, social services, libraries supported by taxes; just as YOU who pay pennies. On any other playground “Fair” would be “equal.” When you go to the burger shack the cashier doesn’t charge you according to your W-2. When you’re buying a gallon of milk how much you earn is never the issue. You pay the same price no matter how much you earn. So, if I drive the same road as someone who earns minimum wage, why are MY taxes that pay for that highway higher? I live in the same neighborhood as people who make twice what I receive, but my property taxes are the SAME percentage of value as theirs. If a billionaire lived in my house he would pay the SAME property taxes I pay. That’s just truth.
However, the real issue is math. Somehow I’ve never gotten the math to work. Even if we defined “Fair Share” for billionaires as 50% tax, THE MONEY RECEIVED would not be enough to fill the political buckets (social programs, schools, road projects, etc.). Math tells us that we also would need to tax the millionaires at 50%. Even that would not be enough. We also need to take more from those who earn $100,000 and those who earn half that. Once the trap has been sprung it is too late to think about what you’ve done to yourself.
Further, it is difficult to nail down what they mean by “Fair Share.” If you (a non-billionaire) buy a boat and later sell it at a $100,000 profit you will be taxed at 18% for Capital Gains. Same for a billionaire. Do you want to pay more for your Capital Gains, too? Remember that a huge chunk of middle management Middle Class employees transition to receiving their pay as Capital Gains instead of salary before retirement to save a few shekels for retirement. Further, some have attempted to nail down what the politician thinks a “Fair Share” for a billionaire SHOULD be! You won’t get a definite answer. Will that politician think the “Fair Share” should be 25%, 50%, or 90%? He won’t say. One thing you can count on … the politician’s idea of “fair” is not your idea of “fair.”
Everyone who earns a paycheck pays “Payroll Taxes. You pay 7.65%. The billionaire pays 7.65% on the first $184,500 of income (the top amount of earnings which will factor into receiving SS benefits and 0.9% on earnings beyond that for the Medicare program). If you earn $184,500 and pay the maximum into Social Security over 40 years of work, the billionaire also pays in the maximum. If you receive the maximum in annual benefits, the billionaire does, too. So, do those politicians want the billionaire to pay in TWICE AS MUCH, but receive exactly the SAME benefit as you? How is that “fair?” Fair should translate into some increase in benefit for added tax.
Going back to “the math doesn’t work:” The programs the “tax the rich” folks claim are needed will require MORE than just the billionaire taxes and the millionaire taxes. You think the politician will stop there? He won’t. He can’t. In order to get the billionaire’s “fair share” he will be digging into YOUR share, too. If he changes the Capital Gains rate he will be changing YOUR rate on investments, too. Politicians WANT to make Capital Gains be counted as ordinary income … and you will pay it at the tax rate for your work income (22%, 24%, …) instead of 18%. So, the retiree who earns most of his income from investments would be forced to pay the higher rate, too. Are you sure this is what YOU want? Politicians WANT to have no cap on Employment Taxes (Social Security and Medicare). That sounds fine UNTIL your last 10 years before retirement when you are most likely to earn above the current cap ($184,500). You, too, would be caught in that trap where your added taxes will not result in any added benefit. “Fair share” in these situations means that some “average Joe” would pay more.
The truth (which some ignore) is that the wealthy ALREADY pay far more than the average wage-earner. The bottom half of all wage earners pay less than 3.75% of income in federal income taxes, while the top 1% pays more than 26% (nearly 700% more). You can’t hurt THEM without hurting yourself!!!
“Come again?!” California is finding that when you increase taxes on the rich the rich move out of the state. It will happen the exact same way with billionaires who live anywhere on American soil; if we tax them at a higher rate they have the financial wherewithal to move to France, Jamaica, or Canada where they can keep more for themselves. There are consequences to bad behavior, like over-taxation (not allowing people to enjoy the fruits of their labor). Hollywood would move overseas, as would sports teams (Spain vs Germany, instead of Indianapolis vs Chicago).
The actual result would be fewer dollars available for roads, bridges, libraries, schools, etc. The rich pay for those. Without them roads would fall into disrepair. We need them here.
Oh, did I mention what the rich will take with them besides money? Jobs. Your job. The rich hire people for their factories and big businesses, and to clean their homes and trim their bushes. Unemployment would double or triple. Wages would fall. America would become a second world country in just a few years. Stores would have little to sell and you couldn’t afford most of it. Wherever the rich migrate … that is where the new factories would be built. And you’d be unable to afford your car payments and maybe lose your house. Forget getting braces for Susie’s teeth, you’d be lucky to afford to heat your home next winter.
The wealthy are not heartless. During WWI they accepted a jump to 67% tax rate (up from 15%) to support the war and care for the Doughboys who were risking their lives. But after we won, they demanded a lower rate. It was time. They did their duty.
Were you about to “try that cheese?” How do you feel about increasing taxes on the wealthy now?
Copyright 2026 Donald Whelpley
[PLEASE NOTE that Don is always open to discussing the thoughts and opinions he shares here and welcomes comments as shared in the comment section. He doesn’t use other social media platforms and won’t see whatever you’d like to share with him if you post it elsewhere.
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