Of course government does increase the costs. And doing this has created inequality. But we will get back to it.
If these millionaires and billionaires really believed increasing their taxes would reduce inequality they could simply choose to pay more taxes. There is a spot on the tax forms asking for a voluntary contribution. Why would they not just pay more on their own without asking government to steal more money from everyone in their bracket? Because they know that any increase in taxes simply gets passed to their consumers. But if they volunteer their money without having the rest of the people in their earning group they wouldn't be able to simply raise the price of their products cause the other top earners wouldn't have to.
Let's get back to government causing things to be more expensive.
Like I just said, all increases in cost is either passed to the consumer or taken as a hit on the worker in less pay or benifits. For every penny in taxes stolen at every step of production you see another penny raised for the end product. Take the tools I use at work. The ore that was removed from the ground was taxed. The labor used to remove it was taxed. It was taxed again when it was transported from the mine to the foundry. It's taxed again when it's turned from ore into alloy. The labor there is taxed as well. It's then taxed when it is shipped and sold to the tool company. As the alloy is being turned into wrenches and what not it's taxed again several times. And taxed again when it's transported to the point of sale. And finally taxed again when they were sold to me.
All of those taxes are figured into the price of the product produced and paid by me. Including my boxes, I have around 80K worth of personal tools in the shop I work in. Imagine how much cheaper it would have been for me if the government had not taxed every company that had a hand in making those tools.
So yes. Government does increase the cost of products because everything is taxed this way.
Thumper, you really don't understand how it works. There's a huge difference between individual contributions and taxes.
We're in a competitive society. If one company decides to pay workers a lot more or do good things with money - they go out of business. If a rich person gives more in taxes, that's far less than if all rich people do, and is like a tax on being a good citizen.
This is the whole idea of democracy - if we decide 'let's put a man on the moon', then we tax our country and pay for it. If we had left it to, 'if you want a man on the moon, you pay for it' we'd never have gotten to the moon.
There are things we do (mostly) as government programs - education, healthcare, military, roads, the CDC and EPA and FDA and Social Security and more. And there are things we do outside the government - private jets and cars and tv shows and music and all kinds of things people want and buy. Private charity is a good but very small part of the need - government is the lion's share and it's key that taxes are used rather than donations.
Bill Gates could give all his money next year to the government, and for one year the government would get $100 billion, which would pay for a tiny part of the Republicans tax cuts for the rich or cutting healthcare over a trillion dollars (from the current plan).
These hundreds of wealthy people are wanting to pay more of their money - but as part of an increase for all people who are rich.
Here's an e-mail from two of those people I was reading right before I saw your post. They simply want the rich to pay more to reduce the horrible inequality and are willing to sacrifice their part.
"Ben and Jerry here. The Ben and Jerry, founders of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. And we're writing you today about our simple request to Congress: Don't give rich folks—like us and Donald Trump—a tax giveaway and put the burden of paying for it on everyone else in America.
Republicans are currently rushing a tax scam through Congress that would be an enormous giveaway to corporations and the wealthiest Americans by putting the burden on everybody else. In California alone, the richest 1% would receive $3,289,900,000 in tax breaks in 2018, if the proposed tax scam is passed. That's the equivalent of 796,972 health insurance premiums, 555,726 Pell Grants, or 31,188 infrastructure-related jobs in the state.1
We were fortunate and made a whole bunch of money making ice cream, and that's why we can say that slashing trillions from health care and education spending for regular Americans just to give people like us trillions more in tax breaks makes no sense. This tax scheme doesn't benefit everyone—it's designed to benefit guys like us (and those a lot richer than us)—and Trump. Because he'd be getting a tax break, too. (Can't say exactly how much of a tax break, since he won't show us his tax returns.)"
There is no 'raising the price of their ice cream to cover the increased taxes'. The prices on the ice cream are set by the market and demand, not set based on Ben & Jerry's taxes and keeping them rich. That's why when for decades taxes on the rich were higher, inequality was lower - and why now that taxes on the rich are slashed, they're taking all the wealth and inequality is at record highs.
You have it exactly backwards. It's tax CUTS for the rich that take wealth from the rest of the country - who do you think has to make up for the lower revenue, by paying more taxes or having less spent on the country?
You sound like you have fallen for the right-wing myth that taxes are simply waste as ig the money was burned (and you have falled for others as well). No, that's not generally the case (except with things like military spending, where Republicans just voted an $80 billion INCREASE while crying there's no money for the people).
Here's a simple fact for you. There were decades of normal economic history and distribution of income before Reagan. Then the Republican tax cuts for the rich allowed them to take basically EVERY DOLLAR of economic growth since, instead of it helping all boats rise at it had. If the normal historical economics had stayed in place, you'd be making a third higher income. THAT is where your money has been lost - the rich taking their far bigger share and making more than ever before.
