Class Envy

[Tim]

Again, for the third or fourth time, I ask: who decides what's fair? Personally, I think the fact that the top 10% pay 70% of the taxes is more than fair. Hell, if I was one of those 10% I'd say it's downright unfair.

Me! If I pay 25% of my income in taxes, I would expect the same for the mega rich. That is fair.

Did you skip the part where I showed 30 something % of people paid NOTHING in taxes? If you wanna play the fairness card, how is it fair that they DON'T pay anything and you do? Fairness is a totally subjective concept.

I would love to comment on that, but there is nothing there. It shows who doesn't pay taxes by filing status. But that's it. Who are these people? How much money do they make? Why aren't they paying any taxes?
I know my daughter paid 0 taxes last year. She worked part time while going to school, she filed her income taxes and got it all back. So how many of those people are kids, students, part time working mothers? Like I said, I would love more information.
It was in the news not to long ago that one third of all US corporations did NOT pay taxes in 2005. Are they included in those numbers?

And I'll say this again too: The tax system was created to pay for the necessary expenditures of running a government. Not redistributing wealth.

Who said anything about redistributing wealth? I want everyone to pay their fair share. If the wealthy paid into the system at the same as everyone else, then all of our rates would go down. I'm not looking to have the wealthy pay the same rate as me to grow the government coffers, but to reduce my tax burden.

Everyone keeps talking about reducing the tax for the wealthy because they are the ones that create the jobs. Well consider the fact that we are a capitalistic society and for every rich person that will balk at paying taxes and employing more people, there are 3 more ambitious people waiting to replace him and make their own money. If there is a buck to be made, there will always be someone to step up and make it whether it's taxed at 13% or 25%

 

[BadBoy@TheWheel]

Me! If I pay 25% of my income in taxes, I would expect the same for the mega rich. That is fair.



I would love to comment on that, but there is nothing there. It shows who doesn't pay taxes by filing status. But that's it. Who are these people? How much money do they make? Why aren't they paying any taxes?
I know my daughter paid 0 taxes last year. She worked part time while going to school, she filed her income taxes and got it all back. So how many of those people are kids, students, part time working mothers? Like I said, I would love more information.
It was in the news not to long ago that one third of all US corporations did NOT pay taxes in 2005. Are they included in those numbers?



Who said anything about redistributing wealth? I want everyone to pay their fair share. If the wealthy paid into the system at the same as everyone else, then all of our rates would go down. I'm not looking to have the wealthy pay the same rate as me to grow the government coffers, but to reduce my tax burden.

Everyone keeps talking about reducing the tax for the wealthy because they are the ones that create the jobs. Well consider the fact that we are a capitalistic society and for every rich person that will balk at paying taxes and employing more people, there are 3 more ambitious people waiting to replace him and make their own money. If there is a buck to be made, there will always be someone to step up and make it whether it's taxed at 13% or 25%

I say a flat tax...People who make more will still bitch, and they will pay more of course...But then we couldn't argue about actual %'s

Problem fixed

 

[lumpenstein]

Do you have it?

I guess after hours of thought, much investigation....I came to the conclusion that some of the jobs that CEO's perform, are to a very large extent far outside the grasp of what abilitites a lot of folks have.

You look at a typical fortune 500 company, they are a small group compared to the mid sized and small businesses, so that means there is an even smaller group of fortune 500 CEO's out there drawing huge salaries. Now do I think I have a firm enough grasp of the way my industry works to do this job....Yes

Would I.....Not for any amount of money on the planet Here's why:

In a study done of some of the most successful CEO's in the industry, there were questions asked about the way they meter the lives they lead, how they measure success and how they balance business with personal life.

In almost every instance, it was discovered a profound off balance in regards to personal lives, it's not greed or power, it was the way they thought. They essentially had no other vision other than the company they represented getting to point B, that was it. They basically had little or no regard for personal lives, and basically lived to work.

I know in the instance of my CEO, he works feverishly, painstakingly planning every move to maneuver our company through continued troubled waters, and this comapny has done that for over 100 years.

So I guess my point is this...Why does it seem fair, or in style to shake fists at the wealthy rather than set out on a path to claim the same success ourselves?

Is it really fair to tax the wealthy more? The smallest percentage of the population (normally called the "wealthy 1%") pay in the area of 40% of the taxes....So it would appear to me the rich are already taxed heavily.

Most large corporations are taxed at a flat 40% or more on profits, and I have heard some economists claim that the large corporations seek other countries if for any other reason than the heavy taxation taking away from the ability to be flexible financially.

Thoughts anyone? I mean frankly it makes no sense to hate Bill Gates for his wealth, you don't have to buy his products, the truth is he stepped out on a limb and took the risk, we choose to buy his products.

Okay....Next contestant

First you state that they have little regard for personal lives then ask why we don't set out to aim for the same sucess? I shudder at the thought. Having no personal life and living only for a company is the farthest thing from sucess I can think of.

 

[lumpenstein]

Personally i think everyone needs to be taxed the same.. However, I dont agree that they should make billion dollar salaries... I personally will probably never see a billion dollars in my life time (or a million for that matter) and its really ridiculous how much they make. I understand they are taxed more, but geez! Spread the love to the little people. lol

Well, V, let's do a quick calculation. Imagine somebody earning $50,000 per year. That salary is pretty darn good by many people's standards. Divide that into $1,000,000 and you get 20 years. 2 decases to earn your million but you have to remember that it is gross. Subtract taxes (I don't know how much you pay personally) and base cost of living (food and shelter) and determine how much you could possibly save of that amount over 20 years. You obviously will not have very much of that million. Let's extrapolate over a working lifetime. If a person worked from that age of 20 to the age of 65 (the theoretical age of retirement) and averaged $50,000/year (a pretty damn good average!) they will have grossed $2,250,000. That sounds impressive until you factor in the cost of living.

Personally, I'm still working on my first million!

 

[Strauss]

Who said anything about redistributing wealth?

Barack Obama, well, at least if you're a plumber buying the company you work for.