Martin O’Malley gets it on capital gain
Martin O’Malley did not get much time to speak in the Democratic Debate. Most of the exchanges occurred between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Most of the times, O’Malley had to force himself into the debate. In general he was solid. There is one statement he made that is extremely important that will likely be ignored by the mainstream media. Why? Because it fundamentally affects the wealthy, the plutocracy.
Martin O’Malley said the following:
The things that we need to do in our country, like debt-free college in the next five years, like making universal — like making national service a universal option in order to cut youth unemployment in half in the next three years, all these things can be done if we eliminate one entitlement we can no longer afford as a nation.
And that is the wealthy among us, those making more than a million dollars, feel that they are entitled to paying a much lower marginal tax rate than was usual for the better part of these 80 years.
And if we tax earnings from investments on money — namely capital gains — at the same rate as we tax sweat and hard work and toil, we can make the investments we need to make to make our country better.
Americans have been duped into believing that income made from investments deserves some preferential treatment. They speak about the risk the investor makes. To be clear, both the investor and the worker risk something. The investor risks his/her capital. The worker risks his/her limb, wellbeing, health, and sometimes life. The worker affords the investor the ability to earn without any physical responsibility.
So why do workers potentially pay more in taxes than investors? It is a farce. Because we allow the politicians to write laws to favor the rich. That is why we must vote to elect candidates with a moral compass who will ensure all pay their fair share of taxes.
