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No one was actually paying 90% of their income for taxes.
There were numerous deductions allowed.
I'm quite aware of that. One of the main ways wealthy individuals and corporations were able to receive tax abatements was by means of capital purchases of durable goods directly related to their business (e.g. buy stuff for the business, thereby creating jobs in their business and in their suppliers' businesses).
There's no upside to incenting the accumulation of wealth, so IMO we should instead incent the wealthy and corporations for the creation and sustainment of jobs. I have no problem giving a tax break to a business that's actively trying to create jobs for Americans, and I believe we would all benefit from a tax policy that emphasized that.
Otherwise, if a company's just standing pat and not making any effort to increase jobs or economic activity, then it's not actively contributing to advancing the American economy. And why should such companies (and wealthy individuals) receive tax breaks if they're not pitching in?
Because some of us don't believe in a welfare state where some work so others can mooch. Some of us believe that those who work should....gasp...actually be rewarded for working instead of penalized by taking away what they earned.
And as my mother used to say "If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you?". I don't care what taxes are in other countries. That's their business. I care what portion of my income I get to keep and it's not enough. That they pay more is their problem to deal with. My fight is keeping enough of my income so I can live off of it without government hand outs.
That has nothing to do with the tax rates and everything to do with spending. If you or others do not want to spend money on (insert program here) voice that opinion, but don't try and state that our taxes are high when that can easily be proven false.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluesjuke
By comparison to other Nations makes them not too high?
Showing them to be more extreme does not change a thing.
It actually destroys the argument that America has high taxes. Our taxes are high compared to Yemen, but low compared to western countries.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thecoalman
I can certainly make arguments that is not the case for many of those things and trying to correlate that with tax rates becomes problematic.Goverment spending is factor but it's not the only factor and probably not the major factor for many of them. For example you mention education but the US is one of the top spenders if not the top spender in education, how does that fit in?
That's really not the topic of this thread. The issue is the tax levels and tax levels are not high in the USA. Granted, some people don't want to spend money on the poor, the sick, disabled, or disaster victims, but many of the same people that don't want programs state they have no problem with a safety net.
One thing people can't factually state is that America is a high tax country. Additionally, I merely mentioned tax rates, not spending. We do spend the most on education, but that money doesn't make it to the teachers or the classrooms. US teachers make decent pay, but work much longer hours for that pay - which results in lower effective pay.
Because most of those rich guys with the 90+ percent tax rates actually paid no taxes at all. Loopholes were specifically designed for them by lawmakers.
They eliminated some of the loopholes when they lowered the rates.
You don't think FDR was really taxing others of his class at that rate do you?
The point I also made was that the higher the marginal tax rate, the more money was left in the business, reinvested, and led to expansion ie growth.
It is indisputable that as the marginal rates dropped, business owners took more out of the business for themselves, leaving less for reinvestment, less for expansion.
It is actually a little more complex than that, but that is the basic economics of marginal tax rates.
One thing that happens with high marginal rates is that business owners are more likely to keep money in their businesses rather than withdraw it as salary and/or bonus. As rates decline, owners will take out more for themselves and leave less in the business. Proof of this may be inferred from the following:
While you are at it look up S-Corps. If you are a small business all profit (including that money left in business, retained earnings) is taxed at a personal rate. All of it! So if a small business owner is taxed on it regardless the owner is likely to leave it in the business why? The owner wants to grow their business (especially when the economy is bad) why?
Taxes are at a historic low actually. Property taxes usually go up as the value of the property goes up.
Taxes are clearly at historic lows for the top 1%, thanks to Bush, and the republicans. The country functioned much better with the traditional tax structure used under the Clinton administration, and other administrations before him. An economy can only thrive, if the large middle class can thrive, but the wealthy no longer need to depend on the masses to buy goods and services, because most of the investments of the wealthy are focused overseas now.
The purpose of property taxes is to pay for services. If real estate prices go up, then the adjusted rate per thousand would need to be adjusted. Just because property values go up, let's say 30%; this does not mean it costs 30% more to operate a municipality. One primary problem is, state, city, town workers who believe they are immune to the problems of Wall Street. While 401K's, for the private sector were in termoil, many pensions continued to soar. Because state legislators are in bed with union officials of city, state employees; those who derive their paychecks from other peoples taxes they often remain immune (and believe they should be immune) to any of the problems faced by those who work in the private sector, thus property taxes, and other associated bills go up disproportionately compared with inflation.
That's really not the topic of this thread. The issue is the tax levels and tax levels are not high in the USA. Granted, some people don't want to spend money on the poor, the sick, disabled, or disaster victims, but many of the same people that don't want programs state they have no problem with a safety net.
I'm not sure what the topic of this thread is then other than you feel we should raise tax rates simply becsue someone else is paying higher taxes? That's not an argument as to whether taxes are too much or too little.
I'm quite aware of that. One of the main ways wealthy individuals and corporations were able to receive tax abatements was by means of capital purchases of durable goods directly related to their business (e.g. buy stuff for the business, thereby creating jobs in their business and in their suppliers' businesses).
No, it was spending on things the GOVERNMENT WANTED THEM TO.
That's not good for the economy.
Government does not know how to direct capital or investment, it is 100% incompetent at such things.
The point I also made was that the higher the marginal tax rate, the more money was left in the business, reinvested, and led to expansion ie growth.
It is indisputable that as the marginal rates dropped, business owners took more out of the business for themselves, leaving less for reinvestment, less for expansion.
It is actually a little more complex than that, but that is the basic economics of marginal tax rates.
It is also 100% falsehood.
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