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I don't think people understand how few people in the US make over $250,000 per year. I also don't think they understand that the people making less than $40,000 are often the ones who are working as hard as they possibly can and still can't make ends meet. It isn't about laziness vs. hard work. Its about the luck of the draw. Wealth, the way we work, is often inherited. If not directly, then parents being able to afford to give kids college educations or even just a stable home life directly results in better "life luck".
So it makes me scratch my head to think that a country where the 50th percentile household income is only $40K would elect a President from a party that wants to cut taxes on the rich, while also INCREASING THE DEFICIT EVERY YEAR, as was the case for Dubya for 8 years! It's incredible. So, one explanation is that the 0 to 49th percentile households are not voting in great numbers every 4 years!
Mr. and Mrs. $250K per year income: Remember, in the year 2008 there are maybe 0.5% or 1% of you and 99% to 99.5% of the rest of the country! You're concerns are going to be voted down! Deal with it!
Precisely - those on the lower economic ladders do not vote as much as they should - or the graph above would look different.
I don't think that $250,000 annual income makes you 'rich' in all parts of the country - certainly in the northeast or in most big cities it would not...
However, I do think that there should be much higher marginal tax rates for income over $250,000 - from ALL sources - not just wages - but investments also... Call it an AMT2 - only for income over 250k...
And I am totally for the millionaire surtax that Charles Rengel is proposing - for all incomes above 1 million.
The income distribution just continues to get skewed to the advantage of the rich more and more and more each year....ENOUGH ALREADY!!! Do some income distribution from the rich to everyone else for a while...
You don't even have to frame it as "income redistribution." You can frame it as "investing in the future" "improving the infrastructure" and "rationalizing the economy for 21st century."
Olbama wants to make each small business owner that makes over 250,000 dollars a year pay a tax.
Why would some think this is okay? I mean come one, you go out and make over 250,000 dollars a year and you have to pay extra tax for the middle class?
If someone doesn't like being middle class, then the middle class should find another job or start a business. I know that this doesn't happen overnight but I think if the person's tries and is confident getting a better job things turn out better.
And anyway,what's so wrong with middle class? What is so bad with makeing around 42,000 a year?
That's considered the average wage and I don't get why people think they should just get extra money because they make that much. These people are not even close to being poor or with poverty. Unless the spending habits are bad.
If someone is making 70,000 dollars a year and just spends like crazy they could be a lot worse off than a middle class.
I'm in college right now and I'm thinking: If I'm middle class, I don't want the government paying me out of it.
I don't expect the government to pay for my nights out since I'm not working full time in college.
It's up to me! not the government on how much money I should get.
It's up to me! To enjoy raising and family and enjoy being middle class or still enjoy a family making more money.
It's up to me! To be poor!
It's up to me! To try my best to change to higher paying job!
It's up to me! To try to find how to make more money! not the government
Sorry if I said, "It's up to me!" so many times but that's the real truth
What in God's name has George Bush and John McCain done? They have had 8 years in the White House. 8 years to show this country and the world that whatever alternative plan is devised by a Democrat, IT WOULDN'T BE NEARLY HAS EFFECTIVE. The village idiot had 8 years to prove that in 2008, the GOP had all the solutions. Guess what? He FAILED. The GOP FAILED. McCain FAILED and is part of the problem.
Bush and the GOP showed quite clearly over the last 8 years that they haven't a clue. At the very least, they demonstrated that alternative plans are desperately needed and necessary.
First of all don't talk to me as if I am using any form of public aid okay? I pay tax too. Also, you're using all the following examples; paying for multiple kids college, paying for their weddings, owning a home in an area with hugely inflated property values, sending your kids to private schools, financing what will most likely be a comfy retirement, paying for insurance, providing your kids a "great" life, etc as reasons why your "meager" income of 250k+ a year isn't all that much. Gimme a break, look at the value of your home and your income, now look at areas in 90% of the rest of the country and see what that kinda income pays for and then proceed to "shut it".
Grow up and get the fact that a 2000 sq. ft house costs $300K in one state and $6000,000.00 in another . A 4000 sq for house may cost 400k in one state and $1.2M in another.
Get out of Smallville, once in a while, if you can.
I wouldn't have had 3 kids if I knew I couldn't provide for them. What's everyone elses excuse?
I don't think people understand how few people in the US make over $250,000 per year. I also don't think they understand that the people making less than $40,000 are often the ones who are working as hard as they possibly can and still can't make ends meet. It isn't about laziness vs. hard work. Its about the luck of the draw. Wealth, the way we work, is often inherited. If not directly, then parents being able to afford to give kids college educations or even just a stable home life directly results in better "life luck".
I don't think people understand how many people DO make over $250K in the US and are "getting by". Depends on where your standards lie.
My "wealth" wasn't inherited. Paris Hilton's are. My parents worked their arses off and didn't buy anything they couldn't afford (including KIDS) until they could afford and provide.
Cry me a river. Christmas?? I'm sorry, my DH works on Christmas to provide for his family. Where are you or yours on Christmas? Home eating turkey?
SACRIFICE. Don't even think you can take away from me when you and yours are partying every holiday of the year. We work. WE DESERVE our income and just b/c your and yours don't feel like working or haven't taken the steps to be where my family is (lots of giving up and sacrificing)..why should I pay for YOU when you can't afford the "little things" like college or insurance or anything else?
SACRIFICE. Don't even think you can take away from me when you and yours are partying every holiday of the year. We work. WE DESERVE our income and just b/c your and yours don't feel like working or haven't taken the steps to be where my family is (lots of giving up and sacrificing)..why should I pay for YOU when you can't afford the "little things" like college or insurance or anything else?
We've worked 7 days a week for 15 years now to grow our small business. We work long hours, sometimes until or past midnight. Our child has played and slept at our business over the years. We provide stable jobs. We take care of our employees. In return, they are not willing to work overtime on the rare occasions that we request it.
But 1) small business is how WE CHOSE to try to improve OUR future and 2) manufacturers like us are what could help pull this economy out of the dumps. But the average American: 1) has no idea of what is entailed in growing a small business and 2) have no idea how the economy works (or fails). Instead, they covet what other people have earned.
Good luck finding a job when employers are disincentivized. Good luck expecting a better economy when manufacturers are disincentivized.
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