The narrative is always the same. Financial institutions, corporations, and the 1% need to keep all their money because they are the job creators, the innovators, the reason the 99% have anything at all. They work hard for the money. They deserve to acquire obscene amounts and keep it all. They need not put anything back into the economy, the hell with infrastructure and everything else for that matter. The rich do not have a social contract. Instead they have an obligation to keep society's hands off their money. The money they earn with all their hard work is theirs and theirs alone. Taxes are for losers and charity is for schmucks. When you donate money you need to be sure it returns to you ten fold. Charity belongs to those who don't need it. The rest of us apparently do not work hard for our money. Most of us are useless eaters and the rest sail through the work day living large on the backs of the rich. We don't understand what it means to work hard. Therefore logic dictates that we need to carry the weight of the economy on our shoulders. We need to bear the brunt of the tax burden. Hell, that's only fair. Right? We need to tighten our belts; austerity is what we have earned.
The reality is quite different from the illusion. While they play endless games of keep away with their money and reckless games of chance with ours, we are left holding up the very fabric of society. There are so many ways that we as citizens and taxpayers are being screwed it boggles the mind.
Here is an interesting interview with the author of "The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths" that explains one way we are having our tax dollars used by the wealthy with nothing coming back to the public.
http://ineteconomics.org/ideas-paper...apples-success