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I'm middle class, and I see no reason to make the wealthy pay more than their share. They earned their money, they should be able to keep the same percentage of it as I keep of my money. Tax the rich enough, and pretty soon you won't have any rich people to tax. I think the beer allegory says it quite well (sorry I do not know who should get the attribution for this...I read it years ago, and don't know where it originally came from):
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. "Drinks for the ten now cost just $80."
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
So, the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before, and the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "But he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill. And that, boys and girls, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
Have you ever stopped to think about all the benefits of government that the rich overuse but the poor have no use for? Let's start with our foreign embassies and our civil court system. How about our patent and trademark system? Do you know many people living in poverty who've had a patent or a trademark?
There are many parts of government that the wealthy should be paying for because they are the ones who benefit the most from those parts of government.
Have you ever stopped to think about all the benefits of government that the rich overuse but the poor have no use for? Let's start with our foreign embassies and our civil court system. How about our patent and trademark system? Do you know many people living in poverty who've had a patent or a trademark?
There are many parts of government that the wealthy should be paying for because they are the ones who benefit the most from those parts of government.
That is already accomplished by the higher taxes the wealthy pay in relation to their higher incomes.
You think? If they were, we wouldn't have a deficit.
Really? Do the poor pay for the total cost of the government services they use? Well, that would be a firm NO because 47% of American households pay no federal income tax.
Really? Do the poor pay for the total cost of the government services they use? Well, that would be a firm NO because 47% of American households pay no federal income tax.
There's the deficit.
You realize that there are plenty of wealthy people in that 47%, don't you? Like Leona Helmsley said "Taxes are for little people."
You are aware that even a freshman stats student knows that you haven't demonstrated causality?
You are aware that Adam Smith was not a socialist?
I don't have a problem with reducing government spending, of course my problem with government spending came to me a bit quicker than most folks on this board. So, when the cutting is to be done I will be watching with great anticipation to see where the sacred cows are and to whom they belong.
Money to the treasury doubled under Reagan after his reduction to a top rate of 28%. It did not increase by raising income taxes.
What we have going on as a cancer in the middle of our Republic is socialism and class warfare. Adam Smith has nothing to do with that IMO. People can't expect to all be the 35 year olds who all go home to live with their parents forever.
You shrink the hell out of government down to maybe what it was in the 60s and you also reduce government employees down to the levels they were as a percentage of the population in the 60s as well.
The reason for that is only the government or private sector can grow. If the government grows too big you get the private sector dying as we all are seeing now.
Of course Obama, the self proclaimed president of 57 states figured the best thing to do would be to confiscate another 1/6th of the economy into the government through Obamacare.
Poof! There goes the American Economy, the emperor has no brains or clothes. He is an empty suited socialist/communist.
In any discussion of taxes it may be advantageous to remember that many American's have made their wealth from the innate lopsidedness of our economic system, those who have made their money thusly are now worried about the tax man, and not surprisingly they will jump to political conclusions that protect their interests. The only way to maintain civility in a nation of such varied levels of wealth is to pay those on the bottom a meager amount that enables them to just get by, therefor they are not inclined to take the wealth of those on top. It is this raw view of economics that made the likes of John Rockefeller and the Morgan money men confront Roosevelt to save their behinds from the call for a socialistic redistribution of the means of production in the US, the result was the programs of a bare bones work existence, the WPA, the three C's and other soup line scenarios. . Today this scene is being played out again as the upper class attempts to protect it's wealth by throwing a bone to the poor while maintaining their position of upper class superiority. It's just another day in paradise for those poor downtrodden billionaires who according to some are actually carrying the rest of us on their backs, oh, the horror of it all.............
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