Let us first extract the Barry-isms;-
-"After all the tax system should only be about collecting the tax needed to pay for public services and should not be about anything else."
-"Well the Centre for Economic and Business Studies have looked into this. CEBS have the best track record of any for their economic predictions so are worth listening to."
Are we to assume that each 'high-rate' tax-payer lands upon virgin (if not entirely barren) soil?
They then magic-up a scheme that nets them vast wealth and shortly all that there is for them to do is pose atop some vantage point, the lord of all they survey?
What of the flora and the fauna? Is the latter seen to gambol about enjoying the 'labours' of The One? The former fertilised and watered in accordance with the will of The One?
Has The One none to thank but themselves? Is the world of The One populated by Elvish folk and smiling gift-bestrewn children?
Is all sweetness and light?
When did Tax become a dirty word? When did the manufactured truth that, "Success is selfish." gain currency in the daily lives of us all?
"The American Dream." Is this just the destination on the front of a bus, that you are either on or you are left at the roadside?
I, for one, am a great believer in, "We are, each and all, in this together." Not together on the bus, but together in a whole society of interconnectedness. No man is an island, said the poet. And no man is his sole benefactor.
For, behind (not beneath) every successful business person is the market place and the work force and a whole host of others who if not directly concerned with any particular enterprise are a vital part in the lives of those who are and are a responsibility of us all.
The post-war years (WWII) saw a great transformation in the fortunes of the many. Where did it all go wrong?
To give a clue to that last question I post the link below.
To answer the question of this thread's title: Once all bills are paid, then what you have left is yours to do with as you please. 95% was necessary when there was little, but also much to be done. As it is today?
http://visualizingeconomics.com/2007/11/03/nytimes-historical-tax-rates-by-income-group/