Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
With tax season just around the corner it’s time for my blood to start boiling. It seems that every year I here about working poor getting huge refunds via the earned income credit also know as the big screen TV stimulus plan.
Why should anyone get back more than they paid in?
For many low-wage workers, EIC increases work by moving the economic tipping point in favor of work. For many workers with children, low-wage work does not make economic sense without EIC; they would be better off with a welfare bundle of goodies. (For some workers, perverse features of EIC reduce work.)
When it was created in the 1970s, families were usually headed by married couples - not single parents and not cohabiting couples.
Family composition changed in an adverse way and EIC has not changed to keep up with the times; it's time to revisit the whole program.
It is always easier to gain political support for a 'tax' program which gives people money than it is for a spending program which gives people the same amount of money, hence EIC instead of more welfare spending.
For many people, their EIC is maximized by working half-time; this makes absolutely no sense. EIC has a marriage penalty like the marriage penalty for taxes, and promotes cohabitation over marriage. This also makes no sense.
So there is one group of people abusing the heck out of it, and another group of people who are more productive because of it.
I am definitely with you there. And it's not just taxes that set me off. We elected not to have children, because we didn't feel economically stable enough to afford them - so I get a little bent when we realize that we pay for them anyway.
Most places that I have worked offer 4 tiers of medical insurance: single, single with kids, married, and married with kids. Those with 12 kids pay the same rate as a person with one kid - and those of us without kids subsidize it.
I really don't have a problem funding education - but I still feel the need to point out that we pay school district taxes. These taxes are based on property value, and not on the number of kids we have. We own a modest property, so it isn't that high, but we also don't have any kids in school. So that doesn't really seem fair either.
I was economically stable enough to have kids.
I just don't want them.
I don't mind paying for education either, after all, ignorance is much more expensive.
The Earned Income Credit was originally a Republican proposal. The idea was to create a tax incentive for low-income people to go to work, rather than to rely on welfare. You can only get EIC if you have earned income.
It's amazing how nowadays people seem to think it's a Democratic idea to reduce the incentive to work.
The Earned Income Credit was originally a Republican proposal. The idea was to create a tax incentive for low-income people to go to work, rather than to rely on welfare. You can only get EIC if you have earned income.
It's amazing how nowadays people seem to think it's a Democratic idea to reduce the incentive to work.
Nastly little facts.
Some choose to ignore them.
It's funny because they keep saying that the US has gone far left.
The US has really moved far right, but they refuse to acknowledge it.
Republicans love the poor, as long as they live Somewhere Else and don't ask for housing subsidies.
Unless we own the housing complex. Then we don't care.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
