Those people don't 'do nothing'.
Most have worked hard, denied immediate gratification, saved and invested.
They did their hard work log ago.
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This. The Republican perspective is that these are not actually different groups of people, but the same people at different points in their lives. The people making salary are younger. They save, then go on to live off their investments when they get older. It is reasonable to tax younger people with earning potential ahead of them rather than older people.
What of inherited wealth?
I'd expect that many of these people inherit money, or "spend" money by giving it to their children. If the argument is that people who worked hard shouldn't be penalized, then that argues in favor of an extremely high estate tax; children who happened to be born to parents who worked hard shouldn't be significantly better off than children who happened not to have that fortune.
I'm of mixed opinion on this one.
On one hand, I think 'That person earned their money, they can spend it as they see fit. If the kids splurge it, it still gets distributed.'
On the other hand, I see how this makes it hard for life to seem fair. (But then again, some people are born attractive, tall, athletic, smart, etc. The upshot: life just isn't fair.)
Even if we agreed that high taxes on inherited wealth were proper, I doubt if it'd become law. The Kennedys, Bushes, Clintons, etc. wouldn't like it for obvious reasons.
Life isn't fair but the legitimate purpose of government policy is to shape society in the ways people want it shaped. Otherwise we'd just have a monarchy and say "Life isn't fair." (And it is worth remembering that the people can always revolt and slaughter the rich who don't like their policies, that's a legitimate way of establishing a government.)
I'm a fan of saying, first, that people did not earn their money past a certain point (my income has more than doubled since I entered tech and I am certainly not working more than twice as hard, I just joined a hedge fund instead of an unprofitable startup, and as a result I am firmly comfortable with any of these high tax brackets affecting me personally). Then you can say, we'll tax much more heavily at the point that you don't need the money to live. Then you simply don't accumulate the money needed for your children to live off passive income, and the question doesn't arise.
Many people work hard and are also denied gratification, yet they aren't fortunate enough to enjoy the easy money derived from capital gains, since they don't hold much capital.
Also there is a difference between rich people and wealthy people. Wealthy people don't work hard, relatively speaking, per dollar earned.
Sure. There can be many reasons why somebody doesn't end up with a pile of cash. They might have had a catastrophic illness, or made sub-optimal investments, or maybe got scammed.
But that's no reason to penalize the people who have done the work, followed the rules, played their cards well and had a little luck. They deserve to keep what they've earned.
I'd argue that many people have done the work, followed the rules, played their cards the best they could and they just were dealt an okay or even bad hand.
Given they've done everything we could reasonably expect they should, let's make sure they are made whole with the amazing good fortune the winners have received by having everyone play an honest game.
I don't think we'll ever be able to succeed at that.
We should work hard to strive for equality of opportunity.
We should avoid trying to guarantee equality of end result. (Because it's an impossible task.)
Summary: Everybody should get a fair shot. Everybody won't end up with equal results.
> Everybody should get a fair shot. Everybody won't end up with equal results.
Everyone is not going to get a fair shot, since some will be born with more inherited capital (social, financial, etc...) . I'm not arguing everyone get equal results in the end. I'm suggesting that society will function better if folks are made whole. In other words, they have basic needs met and this standard increases with the increasing wealth of the country.