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I worked with someone who was a humblebrag, or actually just a braggart. And she would say things like: "Oh it's so difficult because my husband makes too much money and we can't afford certain things because of taxes."
And I was like:
(....)
This flawed logic shows up more commonly in the whole "Middle class people make too much to qualify for financial aid [ to send kids to college ] but too little to pay out of pocket!"
I hear that so many times it's not even funny. And it is just as flawed: The added income dollars above the lower-class family only reduce financial aid by something like 10 cents on the income dollar. So moan all you want that the middle class can't pay for college but the lower and upper classes can, but mathematically it isn't true, other than the lifestyle choices they have made to eat up all their money.
Try the 39% bracket. For most of my professional career (given the high state taxes where I live) it feels as though I am working for the government, not myself.
If aggregate taxes are above 50%, we have entered a level of tyranny in which you ARE working more for the government than yourself. In effect, you are a majority stake federal slave.
This. I make so much money, I basically don't qualify for any deductions. Not even the rental/landlord stuff since my income is past the 150K limit. It really makes me wonder if I want to keep striving to make more money so I can have almost half of it taken from me via the federal, state and local taxes. Meanwhile my section 8 neighbors live in the same half million dollar neighborhood and don't work at all, because they live off the dime of people like us. Makes me just want to retire and call it good, live a frugal lifestyle with minimum tax burden.
I may be misinterpreting your comments, but it seems you are assuming that when someone has money, someone else is prohibited from having money. This is called the "zero sum fallacy" it's not how the economy works. It's not a finite "pie" where there is only so much to go around. Someone else producing wealth does not create a threat to the rest of us. In some instances it's the opposite. A poor person never gave me a job. A poor person never stored enough money in the bank to allow me a home mortgage.
To champion infinite growth on a finite planet regardless of some economic ideology is stupidity at its finest. Planet Earth doesn't exist in a vacuum and as much as we try to supplant real wealth with debt and fiat economic systems eventually the cold hard truth of reality will set in for human beings. Your premise is fine now but I'd love to see how the world and the US looks when in 100 years there are 15 billion people and the top 1% still own 90% of the wealth or whatever crazy figure it's going to be. The point is ONE single human being does not create more wealth effects with a billion dollars than a few hundred thousand with $1 million WITHOUT our debt based monetary system. That's where you are completely wrong and misguided and a slave to ideology. It's the same principle with land..........you honestly and genuinely believe there is nothing wrong with one single human being in a country of millions that Ted Turner has the right to own millions of acres? LOL..........bizarre world your mind exists in buddy. Talk about a slave mentality. We'd be better off going back to the days of the old west or before where might makes right...hell let Ted Turners of the world fight and defend their land from others....see how long they'd last. Hell I say we go back to the days of the gladiators to solve our problems........it's no more barbaric than what you suggest.
Why should 1 individual win a lottery of $1 billion?????? Wouldn't it make much more sense and wouldn't the economic impact and wealth effects be much greater if say 1000 people won a million dollars?
This flawed logic shows up more commonly in the whole "Middle class people make too much to qualify for financial aid [ to send kids to college ] but too little to pay out of pocket!"
I hear that so many times it's not even funny. And it is just as flawed: The added income dollars above the lower-class family only reduce financial aid by something like 10 cents on the income dollar. So moan all you want that the middle class can't pay for college but the lower and upper classes can, but mathematically it isn't true, other than the lifestyle choices they have made to eat up all their money.
Yeah and those "lifestyle" choices the middle class make is what greases our consumption based economy.....All those McMansions, eating out, movies, clothes, vacations, etc. spur economic growth which equals BUSINESSES AND JOBS AND HIRING! So basically if it wasn't for the middle class spending all their money there wouldn't be an economy that would even exist to hire all those poor people looking to get ahead by going to college in the first place and GETTING A JOB! Logic and common sense much? The bottom line is government needs to get the hell out of the student loan business. Government debt is what has caused the huge crisis in college tuition affordability anyways.
Err... nobody forces you to live in a high tax state.
If you're in the 25% tax bracket filing single, you're probably making about $50K. That's the median household income in the first world and in the United States. After you back out $10,300 for standard deduction and exemption, you're paying income tax on about $40K. You likely pay about $5,700 in Federal income taxes. That's an 11.4% effective tax rate with another 7.65% tacked on in payroll taxes for a grand total of about 19%. By first world standards, that is extremely low. Most places in Europe or Asia, it would be more like 40%.
I'm in the 39.5% bracket. Our state taxes are nearly 9%. Given that, with property taxes, medicare, social security, ect..... I pay over 50% of my income in taxes. That is just not right.
Unfortunately, this state is home and one has to balance getting "jobbed" by the state vs living near family.
If a company is 51% owned by a single individual, that company is essentially controlled and owned by that individual. When the state takes over 50%, you are essentially a serf to government, which opposes the basic desires of citizens to be free.
Yeah and those "lifestyle" choices the middle class make is what greases our consumption based economy.....All those McMansions, eating out, movies, clothes, vacations, etc. spur economic growth which equals BUSINESSES AND JOBS AND HIRING! So basically if it wasn't for the middle class spending all their money there wouldn't be an economy that would even exist to hire all those poor people looking to get ahead by going to college in the first place and GETTING A JOB! Logic and common sense much? The bottom line is government needs to get the hell out of the student loan business. Government debt is what has caused the huge crisis in college tuition affordability anyways.
First of all, an economy does not have to depend on consumption. It is also possible to move to a production based system where the jobs involve producing durable goods rather than consumables. Secondly, a pullback of federal loans wouldn't solve the problem of states slashing education funding.
This. I make so much money, I basically don't qualify for any deductions. Not even the rental/landlord stuff since my income is past the 150K limit. It really makes me wonder if I want to keep striving to make more money so I can have almost half of it taken from me via the federal, state and local taxes. Meanwhile my section 8 neighbors live in the same half million dollar neighborhood and don't work at all, because they live off the dime of people like us. Makes me just want to retire and call it good, live a frugal lifestyle with minimum tax burden.
You're supposed to feel sorry for the neighbors because they are poor.
Your income is high but not outrageously so, you should not be getting punished, but encouraged to continue to succeed.
I'm in the 39.5% bracket. Our state taxes are nearly 9%. Given that, with property taxes, medicare, social security, ect..... I pay over 50% of my income in taxes. That is just not right.
Unfortunately, this state is home and one has to balance getting "jobbed" by the state vs living near family.
If a company is 51% owned by a single individual, that company is essentially controlled and owned by that individual. When the state takes over 50%, you are essentially a serf to government, which opposes the basic desires of citizens to be free.
The bolded is not mathematically possible, but I'm sure you don't care as it has been mentioned several times already in this thread. Your income isn't taxed at 39.6% until it crosses the $415k threshold. So you would have to make 5-10 million/yr for your total tax rate to even begin to approach 50%.
The bolded is not mathematically possible, but I'm sure you don't care as it has been mentioned several times already in this thread. Your income isn't taxed at 39.6% until it crosses the $415k threshold. So you would have to make 5-10 million/yr for your total tax rate to even begin to approach 50%.
To be fair, he did include other taxes that aren't proportional to income, like property tax. The median property tax on a home purchased in our area would be over $20k a year, regardless of what the homeowner's income is.
To be fair, he did include other taxes that aren't proportional to income, like property tax. The median property tax on a home purchased in our area would be over $20k a year, regardless of what the homeowner's income is.
he's in Iowa though. Assuming property taxes are 20k in Iowa (I pay about 10% of that for my home in the midwest) that would add an additional 4.8% to his total tax bill. So the rest of his taxes would have to equal 45.2% which still means he would need to make several million to offset the much lower tax rates for his first 413k in income.
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