Can liberals explain why they take issue with the "wealth gap"? (employment, illegals)
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Pfizer paid their taxes on revenues earned in the US.
They will also continue to pay taxes on revenues earned in the US after this merger/buyout.
They left because the US taxes global income...that is income NOT earned in the US.
With them being in Ireland now that money they can bring that money "home" to their new home and reinvest it in R&D in their new home country.
The USG is too greedy. They aren't happy enough taxing US revenue but want taxes from revenue earned in other countries as well.
Both companies and people are leaving the US because of that reason.
I live between a Safeway and a Fred Meyers. One is 1/2 mile west of me, the other is 2/3 mile east of me. I do not drive so a trip to either kind of rules out a trip to the other on the same day. If I need tomatoes and they are $2.99 at Safeway, I might choose to go to Freddie's where they are $1.99. What if I need Tomatoes AND Bread? Bread at Safeway is only $3.99 but at Freddy's the same bread is $4.99... some shoppers go crazy going back and forth between two and three and more different stores looking for the lowest price on everything they need in life.
Poor people like myself just have to pick the lesser of two evils. Although slightly closer the Safeway is much less clean and their produce is horrid and they refuse to install self-checkouts. So I spend more money at Freddy's where the shopping experience is better. The rich like America but they don't want to pay for what makes America a place they like. They live in a maze of tax dodging obsession which is ironic because in many cases the money they spend avoiding U.S. taxes far exceeds the dollar amount of those taxes. Who loses? America loses. I'll repeat: when America is no longer a liveable place, the rich will simply live full time in whatever foreign city they already have households established. Or they will find one.
So what's your plan...have the government seize their assets, sell them off and keep the money ?
We tax income at the Fed level.
If you invested your money in appreciating assets rather than spend it all why the angst ?
Bill Gates earned that money. Now he has a Foundation that spends millions on various efforts all over the world.
Is that not good enough for you ? You want your cut ?
Bill Gate's dad was a founding partner in one of the world's largest law firms so let's not pretend that Bill's enormous success is some bootstrappy rags to riches tale.
The heritage foundation is nowhere to get your data from. Kinda funny they gave us the ACA though.
So from your link:
Quote:
The government’s own data show that the actual living conditions of the more than 45 million people who are deemed “poor” by the Census Bureau differ greatly from popular conceptions of poverty.[18] Consider these facts taken from various government reports:[19]
Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, at the beginning of the War on Poverty, only about 12 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
Nearly three-quarters have a car or truck; 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.[20]
Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite television.
Half have a personal computer; one in seven has two or more computers.
More than half of poor families with children have a video game system such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
Forty-three percent have Internet access.
Forty percent have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV.
A quarter have a digital video recorder system such as a TIVO.
Its interesting how they frame it. Heres another way:
9 million of the poor have no AC at all.
11 million have no vehicle whatsoever
15 million have no cable or satellite tv
22 million have no computer-something considered vital in this modern age
1/2 of those with children do not have video game systems, which is amazing given how many relatives give these as gifts.
Most do not have a plasma or lcd tv
etc etc
And what is the cost of ALL of these benefits? Well the car is huge, but my poor friends with cars spent less then 1000 on them. The real issue tends to be insurance. AC? $100 for a wall mount AC. A personal computer? I know a homeless lady that has one, she spent $300 for it....brand new. I think it was a gift from her mom and dad. And its pretty impressive. Used? I've seen people get them for $40. A LCD TV....whoopty. What? $50 at goodwill?
Someones rent for them and their kids up in my area? $1,600. Almost more then all of that combined.
So what's your plan...have the government seize their assets, sell them off and keep the money ?
We tax income at the Fed level.
If you invested your money in appreciating assets rather than spend it all why the angst ?
Bill Gates earned that money. Now he has a Foundation that spends millions on various efforts all over the world.
Is that not good enough for you ? You want your cut ?
Bill Gates is just one rich guy. And, you know, as much money as he gives away.... he remains rich! If I give money away... there are thousands of REALLY rich people and Target cashiers have to spend 1/3 of their paychecks just getting to work ON MASS TRANSIT, because most transit systems around the country are at the $2.50 for a two hour ticket level. That's $5.00/dy for a worker that earns (grosses!!) $30/dy. Mass transit should be completely free in NYC, NJ, D.C., and many other metro areas. I file my taxes with Turbo Tax and I do not itemize. I cannot afford $220 to have H&R block save me $220 on my taxes. I don't need an accountant because my net worth is $25M. I don't want MY cut, I want America (my country) to continue to function at a First World standard. Is that too much to ask?
In a market economy there will always be some gap between the top and the bottom. That said, what was wrong with the U.S. economy say from 1950 to about 1970? There was far less inequality than there is today and the middle class was strong and growing.
Families at all earning levels were growing together after World War II but have been growing apart since about the late 1970's. The country’s top earners have pulled a lot further ahead than the middle and lower class. An economy that grows for all segments of society is preferable and more sustainable than one that only benefits the few.
Not since the 1920's has the share of income going to the very top reached such high levels. Recent economic studies have shown that economic mobility in the U.S. is far less than it is in "socialist" Europe. In fact, the United States has a stronger link between parents’ education and a child’s economic, educational and socio-emotional outcomes, studies have found, more pronounced than in France, Germany and Nordic countries, as well as Canada and Australia.
Exactly. The fact is that the middle class is more effective at powering the economy than the "1%ers". Another fact is that the middle class is shrinking in this country. That's not good.
"...From 1978 to 2013, CEO compensation, inflation-adjusted, increased 937 percent, a rise more than double stock market growth and substantially greater than the painfully slow 10.2 percent growth in a typical worker’s compensation over the same period..."
"...From 1978 to 2013, CEO compensation, inflation-adjusted, increased 937 percent, a rise more than double stock market growth and substantially greater than the painfully slow 10.2 percent growth in a typical worker’s compensation over the same period..."
THAT'S a problem.
Fun fact...CEO pay of the top 500 biggest companies earned a combined compensation of $5.2 billion
Thats all 500 of them combined.
Now lets hop on over to forbes. Hedge fund managers from...looks like 2011, shrug. close enough.
Ray dallie 3 billion
James simmons. 2.1 billion
Those two people made more then all 500 of the CEO's.
So if you think its bad at that level...just go up a level.
The heritage foundation is nowhere to get your data from. Kinda funny they gave us the ACA though.
So from your link:
Its interesting how they frame it. Heres another way:
9 million of the poor have no AC at all.
11 million have no vehicle whatsoever
15 million have no cable or satellite tv
22 million have no computer-something considered vital in this modern age
1/2 of those with children do not have video game systems, which is amazing given how many relatives give these as gifts.
Most do not have a plasma or lcd tv
etc etc
And what is the cost of ALL of these benefits? Well the car is huge, but my poor friends with cars spent less then 1000 on them. The real issue tends to be insurance. AC? $100 for a wall mount AC. A personal computer? I know a homeless lady that has one, she spent $300 for it....brand new. I think it was a gift from her mom and dad. And its pretty impressive. Used? I've seen people get them for $40. A LCD TV....whoopty. What? $50 at goodwill?
Someones rent for them and their kids up in my area? $1,600. Almost more then all of that combined.
Thank you! People get all sideways about trinkets... Chinese workers make electronics that can be sold cheap in the U.S. Professionals in the U.S. do not work as cheap. 100 million people didn't see a dentist last year. 75 million of them needed one really badly. I've gone almost completely blind because the operations that could have saved my sight are $50K. Instead I paid a fine last year for not having health insurance. Since I am not blind I don't get any breaks in life but I cannot compete with a fully sighted individual who is after the same job I want. And that's without taking race into consideration.
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