Acceptable Targets
As I've pointed out on far too many occasions, it is considered acceptable to discriminate, penalize and do all sorts of nasty things to the evil rich among us. Once it is agreed that it is proper to do bad things to a certain segment of our society, it comes down to defining where the line is between those to have bulls-eyes painted on them and the others who don't deserve the harsh treatment. As I've described, in most areas, this line is defined by AGI (adjusted gross income) on 1040s. Those having income over the arbitrarily set amounts are to be penalized and persecuted.

If it isn't obvious enough where I stand on this issue, it's that we should all be treated equally. I dislike the entire concept of someone on their throne in Washington DC deciding who has enough and who doesn't. That is just fine for communist societies; but has no place in a capitalist free market economy as established by our founding fathers.

For estate (aka death and inheritance) taxes, the defining point of who should have their family's wealth stripped away and who may pass it on is defined by the size of their net estate at the time they pass away. That is currently one million dollars per person and scheduled to increase over the next few years.

Those of us who believe that nobody should be deprived of the right to retain his/her hard earned wealth in the family are having to fight people like this who openly resent rich people and feel it is the responsibility of government to equalize everyone by force. There is a name for these kinds of people. Just the idea of one group of elitists dictating who is average and who is evil rich is disgusting and is no different than having the government mandating what size home is allowable for each person in this country or in other ways telling us how to live our lives.
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 6/30/2003 08:26:00 PM Send this post: