A rich person is any person who has material wealth valued at more than one million dollars. Taxes are compulsory remittances made to the government by an individual or an organization for state revenue. They are remitted through various means including deductions of salary paid, goods and services bought, and profits made by organizations. Tax is remitted directly to the government through the body mandated to collect it. Since people pay taxes as a percentage of their income, the portion paid is equal both for the rich and for the poor. For the sake of development and giving more opportunities to the less privileged, the rich should pay more taxes.
The rich paying more taxes does not impact their purchasing power. With a valuation of more than one million dollars, taxes do not significantly reduce purchasing power even for luxurious living. Even after taxes, the rich remain to be rich (Garcia, 2021). The poor on the other hand, after paying taxes, their purchasing power is significantly reduced and for some, they are unable to sustain themselves comfortably. When products that only the rich can afford like luxury cars, yachts, and mansions are taxed more than ordinary houses, the rich can pay more taxes (Garcia, 2021). Increasing the tax on such products does not make them impossible to acquire, since they are rich, they can still get them. The rich should therefore pay more taxes because even by doing so, their purchasing power remains relatively the same.
When the rich pay more taxes, it increases opportunities for the poor to sustain themselves. Taxes increase government revenue which means government services like healthcare are availed in greater quantity to everyone (Miller, 2021). Since the government can subsidize most of these services, those who are not well off can sustain themselves even more. Taxes also help the government to create job opportunities through industrialization and other investments that create job opportunities (Bloom, 2022). More taxes would mean the government has a greater capacity to make these investments and create job opportunities. Since paying more taxes for the rich increases the opportunities that the poor have, they should pay more taxes.
Finally, the rich should pay more taxes because most of them agree to do so. At the beginning of this year, a letter signed by 100 rich people detailed how their wealth continued to grow despite other people losing their very livelihood because of the COVID pandemic (Bloom, 2022). This is a clear indication that the rich do not mind paying more taxes than everyone else. Since it is their money that they have either inherited or earned by themselves, they hold the sole right to decide whether to pay more taxes or not (Garcia, 2021). With this letter, it is evident they are willing to pay more and so they should be allowed to.
The rich have multiple reasons why they should pay more taxes than everyone else. First, their purchasing power is not vastly impacted by the taxes they pay and it would not be vastly affected if they paid more. Secondly, by paying more taxes, they are creating more opportunities for ordinary people to live decent lives. Finally, the rich are willing to pay more taxes and they have expressed this in written form. For these three reasons, it is evident that the rich should pay more taxes.
