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Again... explain to us exactly WHYa higher birth rate is financially incentivized (via a plethora of taxpayer-funded welfare benefits) among the least responsible.
Because sometimes having four children is not sufficient to have one survive you?
dumb question here, but what if property values go down?
do you pay less tax
Not usually. The property taxing bodies simply adjust their tax rate in order to collect the same or more tax revenue as they collected when the property values were higher.
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and what about capital 'gains' (can there be a capital loss, where you actually get money back?)
Either a gain or a loss is only realized when the property is sold. If there's a loss, it may only be deducted if it was investment property, not on property held for personal use.
Let's intertwine the taxes that pay for that infrastructure then. Capitation tax (head tax). Everyone shares the costs equally.
Your premise is patently absurd. Remove the roads, infrastructure, etc., and you remove any access whatsoever to burgers so there's no need whatsoever for burger flippers. Same is true of any other product or service. No mode of distribution? No access to the product/services? No need for jobs. So, since everyone relies on the infrastructure, everyone should pay for it.
Everyone does through gas taxes currently. Except that small business owner gets a lot a bang for his buck for the taxes he/she pays for roads since the roads multiple his opportunity. Hell try shipping a package across China, India, Nigeria, Sudan for a client. Same thing with education. A small business owner gets the whole working age population at his disposable with all the varying skills from the most basic to the most advanced and everything in between just for paying his taxes going towards education in this country. Again you just can't think big picture and have an ignorant bias.
Local voters are rent seekers and protectionists. Since homeowners almost always constitute a majority of local voters, homeowners are effectively able to restrict home purchase to newcomers only if they meet community economic standards. Don't like renters? Zone them out. If you can't zone them out - sometimes, well-funded developers prevail over homeowners at the ballot box - tax the snot out of their homes.
It's effectively legal class warfare, and the poor never win that battle.
Homeowners generally outnumber renters 2:1. As not everyone votes, if you wish to change local policy, work on a get out the vote campaign among fellow renters.
Things are changing in the owners vs. renters demographics, though.
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Interestingly, the squashing of households has been principally in the number of homeowners. From the bursting of the housing bubble, homeowner households have not increased at all in the past six years. But the number of renters has steadily risen. Rents will rise as a result. Rising rents also mean added pressure to broader consumer price inflation since this rental component is one of the bigger weights in the inflation calculation (more so than even gasoline or food prices).
What government benefits and services am I getting? Quantify them.
The same benefits and services every other single adult who is not receiving public assistance gets. Most of them are paying significantly more than you for those exact same benefits and services. Paying more does not get one more government benefits and services. However, paying less still gets one the same government benefits and services. And we already know that everyone except the low-income will LOSE money on Social Security.
Far less than even the middle class pays? Are you sure about that? Did you include the untaxed employment freebies that constitute a large proportion of middle class compensation?
I applied federal tax law. If you don't like it, abolish the federal income tax. I'm good with that!
As a low-income earner, you'll be one of the few who profits on Social Security.
I figure the value of US citizenship and residency is incalculable, even priceless. And that is one thing I have NO QUALMS about not being able to quantify. (And I don't think qualms can be quantified either.)
If the rich think they are overtaxed or underserved here, they should try putting their money and their persons in a third world country, and see how safe they are there.
The same benefits and services every other single adult who is not receiving public assistance gets. Most of them are paying significantly more than you for those exact same benefits and services. Paying more does not get one more government benefits and services. However, paying less still gets one the same government benefits and services. And we already know that everyone except the low-income will LOSE money on Social Security.
No the wealthier you are, the more you rely on the govt.
If you don't believe then go to China and the exact same thing or India, or any other low tax haven. You're unbelievable.
Everyone does through gas taxes currently. Except that small business owner gets a lot a bang for his buck for the taxes he/she pays for roads since the roads multiple his opportunity.
Gas taxes are not the only source for funding roads and infrastructure. Business owners get no more use out of the infrastructure than their employees and customers. Each needs access to the infrastructure.
No infrastructure? No businesses. No products/services. No jobs.
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