The Rich Get Richer

At least in New York, they will be. Governor Andrew Cuomo is set to allow a surcharge on wealthy taxpayers to expire at the end of this year. The tax applied to high earning individuals and joints filers, starting at $200,000 annually for single filers and $300,000 for married couples. For a married couple earning $350,000 per year, the surcharge was $3,500 or 1%. If this "give back" is supposed to help stimulate the New York economy, then Governor Cuomo may be barking up the wrong tree.

In a recent New York Times article regarding the tax cut, nearly every person with whom the writer spoke said they do not plan to spend any of it but instead will put it into college savings. One individual mentioned that he did not even notice the additional tax when he paid it and didn't mind because he does well financially. Another individual mentioned he won't be spending the extra cash on fancy lunches or extravagant items because he already does that now. While that certainly shows two completely opposite views, a majority of those interviewed still had no plans to further stimulate the economy with their minor windfall.

What I have learned about situations like these, tax cuts for the rich, is just how extremely polarizing they can be. There are many people who are not even close to the top earning brackets, and probably never will be, who blindly support these tax cuts because they envision themselves there someday. There are others, like myself, who know that $3,500 to a couple earning over $350,000 per year means a lot less to them than it would to a couple earning $90,000 per year. I also know that the couple earning $90,000 per year is feeling a lot more of the financial burden in terms of inflation, out of control interest rates, and soaring higher education costs.But with people so quick to side with the "haves" in a nation made up mostly of "have nots", it's unlikely that situation will ever change.

For being one of the richest nations in the world, America is not filled with many people who are actually rich at all. In reality, we have a staggering number of  individuals, nearly 13%, living at or below the poverty line and many well regarded experts feel that is grossly understated. Only 15% of Americans earn over $100,000 per year and only 1.5% over $250,000, yet  there is an abnormally large contingent supporting tax cuts for the highest earning rich despite only making up 1.5% of the population? As someone who works with numbers, that simply doesn't add up but it certainly follows the Golden Rule which states: " The one who has the gold makes the rules".