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For people that wanted facts.
Here are the numbers 2005 from the US Government
Congressional Budget Office data, 2005
Share of federal Share of Total
Income taxes Pre-tax Income
Top 1% 39%
Top 5% 61%
Top 10% 73%
Top 20% 86.3%
Second Highest 20% 13.1%
Middle 20% 4.4%
Second Lowest 20% -0.9%
Bottom 20% -2.9% Source: Congressional Budget Office http://www.atr.org/content/pdf/2008/August/081408ot-federalincometaxandwhattheypay.pdf (broken link) http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/88xx/doc8...alTaxRates.pdf
Quote: The stimulus checks are a scam to increase ratings of both president and congress for the hope of boosting an upcoming election, and if they could claim it helped the economy, they'd take it. If they had instead announced that capital gains taxes would be reduced by 5-10% on all stocks purchased after the date the announced the "stimulus checks" until the sale of the stock, investment in the stock market would have boosted the economy better than buying votes from the public.
Again, the stock market does not, cannot boost the economy. The stock market is a reflection of the economy. A company is worth what it produces, not what someone pays for it.
Your last paragraph is simply not correct. Investment in the stock market means companies have more funds to provide jobs - it doesn't all go directly into CEO pockets. My suggestion to reduce capital gains on long-term stock purchases means people have to invest in a company for at least a year to qualify for the low tax rate on their investment. People are concerned about unemployment and falling sales. Increase employment and sales will follow since that's more people that will have an income to purchase goods.
It was just one example of a flurry of better alternative ways to "spend" $150 billion to improve the economy. A better way of boosting the economy than giving out stimulus checks would be to use that $150 billion toward corporate tax incentives to hire more employees. Or, use that $150 billion toward a reduction in fuel taxes. There are countless ways of spending $150 billion to reduce costs for all "consumers" - freeing up money for them to purchase goods without DIRECTLY handing them a check. By doing that, people are going to expect the government to hand them money when times get tough. Lower taxes if you want to grow the economy. Enact laws to make the country better suited for legal citizens to have more and higher paying jobs if you want to grow the economy. Handing out $600 checks is like slapping a band-aid on an amputation. Surgery is needed, not lollipops.
So many candidates refuse to acknowledge a major problem is the oversupply of workers on the lower end of the job market due to illegal immigration. Companies get away with lower salaries when so many people are willing to work for minimum wage. I'm all for severely punishing the companies that hire illegals, but the problem is many of them hand forth stolen identities and social security numbers, so the paperwork checks out. Until this issue is resolved, wages will be surpressed, insurance costs will remain high to cover the number of cases involving the uninsured, and the economy will stagnate. It only hurts the economy when illegals continually send chunks of their income to relatives in Mexico and other foreign countries. The second highest source of revenue (behind oil) for the Mexican GDP is US money sent from relatives working in the US! This amount is three times the revenue generated from tourism in Mexico. That is money that could have been used by a legal employee in their position at work on goods purchased in the US. The buildup of illegal immigration over the last 20+ years has brought government budgets, insurance coverage, the job market for the lower and middle class, and the US economy to their knees.
I didn't intend to get on the track of illegal immigration, but the problem is that it is VERY closely tied the fall of our economy and rising costs in healthcare, insurance, and certain aspects of government spending.
Who said anything about sense? I'm asking you to back up your wild claim.
I, for one, don't want anything for free. I'm proud of working for what I own. I can't be the only one.
Herein lies the problem. There is a whole culture in the US, built on the "victim" scenario. Elitist liberals tell these people they are victims & proceed to take care of them, on my dime. Instead, let's help these people to fend for themselves. Whadda-ya-say???
Your last paragraph is simply not correct. Investment in the stock market means companies have more funds to provide jobs - it doesn't all go directly into CEO pockets.
The only time money from stock sales goes to the company is during an IPO or sales of company owned stock. If I sell 100 shares of IBM, that money goes to me, not IBM.
If I sell those shares at $100 apiece, that doesn't mean IBM's productivity is necessarily greater than when I bought them for $90 each. IBM's true value goes up when sales of its products goes up, not sales of its stock.
In a perfect world, stock price should reflect a company's true value, but when cash is infused into the market (as with tax cuts to the wealthy), price will rise. Simple supply/demand economics. More cash = more demand = higher price. This occurs independently of the company's actual performance.
Herein lies the problem. There is a whole culture in the US, built on the "victim" scenario. Elitist liberals tell these people they are victims & proceed to take care of them, on my dime. Instead, let's help these people to fend for themselves. Whadda-ya-say???
Everyone I know (except my ex-wife) does fend for him/herself, so I can't relate to your claims.
I think you can look at the number of people voting for Obama because they are expecting a check as evidence..
Another baseless claim...ho-hum...
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