Warren Buffett’s Call: A Tax Policy for the Common Good

Common Dreams - Warren Buffett is calling.  We need more wealthy folks to speak up for the common good.

Billionaire superinvestor Warren Buffett has done it again. The Oracle of Omaha has made a bold and revealing statement about “taxing the wealthy.” In his  op-ed in Monday’s The New York Times, Buffett wrote, “While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks.”

Buffett revealed that his own effective tax rate – the percentage of his income that he actually pays – is far below his co-workers, thanks to how investment income is taxed at lower rates.  Buffett pays an effective rate of 17.4 percent, whereas most middle and upper income individuals pay over 30 percent of their income.  He revealed one of the dirty secrets of tax policy – the privileged treatment of income from wealth over income from work and wages.  Read more.

Comments

Popular Posts