Death and Taxes

A friend of mine once told me how much she paid in taxes and she let me know that she'd be willing to pay more. I am not sure how much money this friend makes but I can hazard a guess that she makes roughly what my family brings in. The reason that she'd be willing to pay more taxes, she tells me, is that she has a police force to protect her, roads to drive on, firefighters to put out her house should it catch on fire, schools for her child to learn in, and so on and so forth. I too would be more than willing to share a bit more of my income to the government to obtain all the great services that I take advantage of on a daily basis. Why then do two middle class people feel that way when people who makes millions, or billions of dollars are not willing to share one more penny? Some would say that that's how they got rich in the first place, by holding on to every penny they made. They call it wealth redistribution, or class warfare. I call bullshit on the whole issue. When times are tough we help each other out more by putting a little more money in the big pot we call government so that we can hold on to the way of living that we have established. It would hurt my family a little to pay more taxes. I may have to cut back on a few things. I would have to cook at home more nights a week, or forgo a date night with my husband. Nobody would go hungry mind you but we would have to make some small sacrifices. What I am having trouble understanding is that if you have, say a billion dollars in the bank and the goverment asks for $100,000 more dollars from you a year, what would you have to give up? Can your children still eat? Can you still buy your wife a new Bentley for Christmas? I would guess the answer to be yes. It may hurt you in some way that I do not understand, but I'd like to know why so many of my middle class friends don't gripe when our taxes go up but you, upper class, do. Taxes are a way of life. There is not any place that you can go where there is any type of government and not have to pay taxes. Like they say, "The only thing certain in life is death and taxes.". As the cost of things rise our taxes must go up. Our wages should go up as well but that's a whole other post altogether. The rich can call it whatever they like, but I call it fairness. We should be willing to help our fellow man. There are a lot of people in our country that are down right now. They need our help and the tax revenue we raise to get through this hard time. A hard time that has been brought on by the greed of the wealthy. When will we see the error of our ways? I can only hope that it's soon becuase if it's not we will die as a country. Other places are already wondering if we are losing our place as a "world superpower" and I think that we are certainly headed that way if we don't fix this, and soon.