Germany Has the 5th Highest Number of Millionaires

According to an MSN Money arcticle, Germany has the 5th highest number of millionaires in the world. The United States, not unexpectedly, has the most.

The article states that "As the number of wealthy Germans increased, the group’s collective sense of public duty also grew. According CNBC, a group of German millionaires and billionaires founded a Club of the Wealthy and proposed to Chancellor Angela Merkel that they give 10% of their income for 10 years as a "rich tax" to help address the nation's budget problems."

In 2007, the United States was #26 at 60.8% of the GDP (gross domestic product: measure of a country's overall economic output. It is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year.) So in simple terms, the US owes 60% of all income to public debt. This does not include foreign debt. Even simpler, if you make $1000 a month, $600 of that is owed to debt. (Most mortgage companies don't want your mortgage to take up more than 20% of your monthly income.)

Now don't get me wrong. I believe that people who have earned their money should be able to keep it, without having to pay exorbitant taxes. I also understand that many of the wealthy avoid paying other taxes because of loopholes in the tax code. (I consider this a form of cheating, but I know that everyone makes mistakes and the taxes are written by humans.)

But wouldn't it be great if our country's millionaires created their own "Wealthy Club" that willingly donated a percentage of their incomes toward the national debt. I agree that most of these millionaires probably do a ton of philanthropist work, but it's usually in third world countries. Yes, we should be taking care of the poor and the needy, but we had a 9.7% unemployment rate in May. That's 9.7 people per 100. I think they should be helping those in their own country before pouring the cash into a country that can't even show responsibility for it's own citizens.