Letter: Higher tax burden hurts working people

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 | 6:58 a.m.

I wish I could agree with Andy Barbano that corporations pay taxes ("Corporations' taxes skew reported data," July 7 letter). It would make things so much simpler.

The reality is that corporations collect taxes and forward them to government. It is only the market, their customers, that pay taxes. It can't be any other way. All revenue to corporations must flow from their markets as must all tax revenue .

President Bill Clinton and the Congress imposed the largest tax increase in the history of the country and the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index tripled during his administration. Somehow, I don't think corporations were taking a "smaller profit" as Mr. Barbano would like us to believe.

The history of capitalism around the world is the same. It doesn't matter what the political system is, capital will maximize its return on investment in relation to its market and individuals will carry the burden of taxation imposed by government. The heavier the burden, the worse off working people will be.

It's a shame well-intentioned labor advocates such as Mr. Barbano refuse to accept that and continue to push policies that hurt the very people they want most to help.

Knight Allen, Las Vegas