Why Do Wealthy Elites Need to Tax the Poor?

Photo by Mihály Köles on Unsplash

I t seems so odd that billionaires and those with hundreds of millions always seem to get massive government hand-outs at the same time that taxes for the poorest rise. It looks like they’re taking money from the poor through taxes. Right?

Shouldn’t these mega rich people, given how ostensibly successful they are in the private sector, have no need to meddle in taxes?

What Do They Want?

I want that “Taxpayer Money”

The ordinary narrative is that the government collects taxes from the public, and these taxes are put in a big bank account and used by the government to pay for things that need to be done in the economy. In the USA the tax receipts for 2025 are around $3.1 trillion¹.

Now, if you’re a big boy greedy man businessman man, you likely want a piece of that juicy 3.1 trillion dollar action, right?

Well…

It turns out the reality is not in line with the ordinary narrative. The reality is that governments do not collect in order to spend; they spend first, and then attempt to recoup the balance via taxes.

The balance in the government’s Central Bank account (The Fed in the USA and the Bank of England in the UK for example) is in deficit if the government…