When the wealthy get their tax cut

David Akadjian of Daily Kos lists the 11 ways that costs are shifted to us after the wealthy get their taxes cut.

Increases at the local level

1. Sales taxes. The rich don’t pay any more in food and consumer products than the rest of us, so most of these taxes are collected from average people.

2. Property taxes. School funding has to come from somewhere. These taxes also get passed through to renters.

3. Sin taxes (tobacco, etc.). Popular as they target “undesirable” behavior, but are paid by average people.

4. Tolls. More bridge or highway projects are funded by tolls.

5. Fees – passport, copyright, parks and museums, license fees, parking, permits, sewage, etc.

Services that used to be free.

6. School supplies – band and sports uniforms, field trips, textbooks, transportation.

7. Privatized police and fire.

Mortgaging the future

8. Deficit spending.

Socialized risks

9. Climate change.

10. Increased pollution. See Flint, MI.

11. Decreased public safety.

Akadjian discusses the term *moral hazard* – someone gets rewards without the costs or risks. The financial collapse of 2008 was because of that. Banks lent recklessly because they could resell the loans into privatized securities. And I remember well that at the time the rich were complaining about the moral hazard of releasing the poor from loans they never should have gotten.



Oxfam International works to reduce poverty and to aid people stuck in it. They released a report on January 21 saying 26 people own as much wealth as the bottom half (3.8 billion) of humanity. The wealth of billionaires increased by 12% last year – that’s $2.5 billion a day – and the poorest half saw their wealth decline by 11%.