It took approximately 50 years in both England and the United States to sell the idea of a regular income tax. What these historical dates fail to reveal is that both of these taxes were initially levied against only the rich. It was this point that rich dad wanted Mike and me to understand. He explained that the idea of taxes was made popular, and accepted by the majority, by telling the poor and the mid- dle class that taxes were created only to punish the rich. The History of Taxes and the Power of Corporations 123 This is how the masses voted for the law, and it became constitutionally legal. Although it was intended to punish the rich, in reality it wound up punishing the very people who voted for it, the poor and middle class "Once government got a taste of money, the appetite grew," said rich dad. "Your dad and I are exactly opposite. He's a government bureaucrat, and I am a capitalist. We get paid, and our success is measured on opposite behaviors. He gets paid to spend money and hire people. The more he spends and the more people he hires, the larger his or- ganization becomes. In the government, the larger his or- ganization, the more he is respected. On the other hand, within my organization, the fewer people I hire and the less money I spend, the more I am respected by my in- vestors. That's why I don't like government people. They have different objectives from most business people. As the government grows, more and more tax dollars will be needed to support it." My educated dad sincerely believed that government should help people. He loved John F. Kennedy and espe- cially the idea of the Peace Corps. He loved the idea so much that both he and my mom worked for the Peace Corps training volunteers to go to Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. He always strived for additional grants and increases in his budget so he could hire more people, both in his job with the Education Department and in the Peace Corps. That was his job. From the time I was about 10 years old, I would hear from my rich dad that government workers werejtgack of lazy thieves, and from my poor dad I would hear how the ricTTwere greedy crooks who should be made to pay more taxes. Both sides have valid points. It was difficult to go to work for one of the biggest capitalists in town and come home to a father who was a prominent government leader. It was not easy knowing who to believe. Yet, when you study the history of taxes, an interesting perspective emerges. As I said, the passage of taxes was only possible because the masses believed in the Robin Hood theory of economics, which was to take from the rich and give to everyone else. The problem was that the government's appetite for money was so great that taxes soon needed to be levied on the middle class, and from there it kept "trickling down." The rich, on the other hand, saw an opportunity. They do not play by the same set of rules.