That's a terrible argument considering the unemployment rate. When you have a significant portion of qualified people out of work you can't expect them to be productive to their full potential. Remember, they didn't get bailed out, like it stated in the article. The system is flawed.
How productive is someone that depends on others for their wages? Most of the unemployed will always be marginal at best, their employment relies on boom and bust cycles.
You're talking about a large portion of the United States. I think it's called "going to work," people get paid for their services performed for a company. How productive are a bunch of corporate leaches on society when they get bailed out while they should have went under - the same ones who caused those bubbles to bust. How productive is transferring the liability of that mess to the next generation?
Wealth confiscated by the government in the form of taxes, tariffs and fees is neutral/ negative. to the measure of productivity. Productivity creates wealth. The Government cannot create wealth it can only redistribute it.
Great so we have large corporations who are largely unproductive so large taxes would seem appropriate. No?