I can't help but respond to Alexander M.F. Hamilton's post below. I'm not terribly surprised by this action. Having lived in Modern Britain for 2+ years and having seen the impact of the government's blatant and never-ending grabs for cash, nothing makes me more worried for the future of America than following in the footsteps of a country from which we voluntarily amputated ourselves from more than 200 years ago.
This great nation is founded on the idea that we can and will do it better/faster/cheaper for you. That involves people harnessing their imagination to provide a new service or applying an old product in a novel fashion. But they don't (or rarely) do it for free. People want to be rewarded for their hard work or applied genius, and over here in America you can make a good living doing that.
While living in the UK I was exposed to a wide cross-section of society: from nurses making nearly minimum wage, to life-long corporate employees, from highest-level physicians and also independent entrepreneurs. At this exact time last November, one of this last group expressed to me his disgust at the tax rates. He had long been involved with small businesses or startups in new markets, and was at the point where he wanted to branch out on his own. In his eyes, however, the government was putting up barriers to entry since if you wanted or expected to earn a decent living (~80k+/year), you could expect the government to take about 40% of that. There were some steps he outlined to mitigate the pre-tax earnings, but overall he deemed it not worth the effort of taking the plunge into his own gig thanks to these increases, unless he could forecast earning considerably more than the 80k rate. And with a new business, even if your market is well-defined, you can't take that for granted.
My entrepreneur friend considered this a perverse form of punishment. Instead of reveling in your new earnings from your successful business, you are instead worried about your tax obligations and the possibility you will be worse off than had you stayed in a job you hated, working for The Man.
232 years ago, taxation-creep led to Revolution. As a new generation wearies of the obligations placed upon them by a haughty, out-of-touch political class, will history repeat itself?
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I agree with the posts of my distinguished colleagues Ben M.F. Franklin and Alexander M.F. Hamilton. One of the things that makes America great is that anybody with an idea and a work ethic can make something of himself/herself. We think of Microsoft and Apple as giant companies now but people forget that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs started those companies in their respective garages. During the 2008 election, people made fun of Joe the Plumber for daring to voice his dream of one day owning his own business. People pointed out that he'd be much better off under the Obama tax plan, which basically steals from the rich to give to the poor. But they great thing about America, unlike Britain and other European countries is that whatever class you are born into, you don't have to stay there. You can move up. You don't have to work for "the man" if you don't want to.
What bothered me about those Democrats who made fun of Joe the Plumber is that they were mostly wealthy individuals who looked at Joe and said he'll never be rich and should just accept that. It struck me as such a condescending attitude towards a man who goes to work everyday and doesn't ask for a handout. In fact, what he wants is for you wealthy people in government is to get out of his way and let him keep more of his money and work towards his dream.
Despite what people might think, and despite this recent hiccup, our economy completely outperforms the other G-8 nations. And it does that because we encourage the little guy with the good idea to strike out on his own and make himself rich, instead of waiting around for someone else to do it for him.
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