Obligation

Very wealthy people and neoconservatives say that they shouldn't have to pay a higher share of taxes than the less wealthy. Their logic is that it's their money, they earned it, they should keep it.

However, the system only works if they pay a higher percentage. Otherwise, the poor get poorer, and the rich keep more. Their debt is paid, because they have the opportunity and ability to be rich. We have more rich people than countries with bad governments. I think that is true. Law and order keeps the poor people from going out, shooting the rich people and stealing their money from them. Who enforces the law? The government. Where does the government get their ability to do that? Tax dollars. Who pays them, everyone. We get to live our lives the way we do because the government is present in some way, shape, or form. Everything from the interstate to the sidewalks, to the phone system has been fostered and maintained by tax dollars. The rich people want to pay less taxes and still live their live as well as they can. The truth is the less taxes the government gets, it decreases it's ability to be present and enforcing the rule of law and fostering progress.

Rich people owe it to the government that they are rich. Teddy Roosevelt said it best:

"The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government."
- Teddy Roosevelt