The Hammond Report

Scoop did an excellent job in his post debunking Richard Buley's opinion piece that appeared in the print version of the Missoulian Sunday, October 21. When I read the piece I saw a couple of things Mr. Buley asserted that I want to address.

First is his assertion that the poor are subsidizing the rich. What an incredibly absurd statement! Being poor, by definition, is the lack of material possessions. How can one who has little or no material possessions subsidize anything, much less the rich? The poor are usually poor for a reason and don't earn enough money to pay income taxes. They have made poor choices in their lives or have been born into poverty and lack the motivation, skills, and ability to advance themselves to earn more. (Note: I am writing in generalities and understand that there are always exceptions) The rich, on the other hand, are rich for a reason.  They have made the right choices in life and have the motivation, skills, abilities, and personality to become wealthy. I'm not talking about the folks who inherit their wealth, I'm talking about the folks who earn their wealth, who invest in and risk their money in order to grow it.

The fact is, according to the IRS and the Tax Foundation, the rich subsidize the poor. The top 1% of income earners pay 36.9% of the total income taxes and the top 50% of income earners pay 96.7% of the total income taxes. So who really pays the freight in our country and who is along for the ride?

The second was his concern that the richest one-tenth of 1 percent's income grew 353 percent and the richest one-hundredth of 1 percent's income grew 513 percent compared to the poorest 20 percent growing 3 percent and the next 20 percent growing 12 percent. So what? Again, the rich become rich for a reason. They have the motivation and skills to become rich and are going to put their money to work, which «trickles down», expands the economy and makes them even richer. That's the way capitalism works. Smart people will invest in opportunities that will give them a good return and make them even richer. That's why they became rich in the first place. That's why our country is the most advanced country in the world today. And it's why, I might add, our «poor» would be considered wealthy or middle class in most other countries.

It's ignorant or just plain dishonest to say the poor subsidize the rich. Sadly there are many who believe it without giving it much thought.