Letter to the editor: Contributions of the wealthy

Sandy Kremer’s letter “Corporations, wealthy should pay fair share” (Aug. 14, TribLIVE) indicated that she believes wealthy individuals and large corporations do not pay their “fair share” of federal income tax.

The June 13 Associated Press article, “The Tax Man Cometh,” which she cites, reports that “people earning between $2 million and $5 million a year paid an average of 27.5%, the highest of any group of taxpayers.” Continuing, “people who reported income above $69 million paid 23%.” Compare those numbers to an assessment from CNBC finance reporter Sarah O’Brien, who commented April 27 that “taxpayers with incomes of less than $75,000 are projected to have, on average, no tax liability … when they file their 2021 returns next spring.” Did Kremer say “fair share”?

Regarding the “richest people” and the largest corporations cited in the article, most of those individuals took considerable personal risk by forming some of the large corporations cited. In Mark Zuckerberg’s case, Facebook now employs more than 58,000 people; of that total, more than 3,000 are now millionaires. Similar comments apply to the other individuals and their companies — Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Elon Musk (Tesla) and Warren Buffet (investor and philanthropist).

Aside from the taxes they pay, they make enormous contributions to the economy and well-being of the country. Each is creative, focused and determined, characteristics sorely missing from the “give me, give me, give me” do-gooders who believe “what is mine is mine and what is yours is negotiable” and who argue that wealthy do not pay their “fair share.”

Wayne E. Baughman

Salem