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I think because the possibility of tearing up our existing tax code and starting fresh is about as likely as everyone agreeing about what to do in this forum. Hell, we can't even agree on what Trump seems to think is best when sure seems to me that Trump is making matters worse!
As tax refunds shrink, Republicans scramble to defend Trump tax cut
Too many Americans are stupid. They're financially and/or math illiterate. Tax refunds are not an accurate reflection of one's actual effective federal income tax rate. If less is withheld each paycheck, of course one's rebate is going to be less. The advantage of that is that Americans get their tax savings up front instead of having to wait a year for the over-payment refund while also giving the Fed Gov an interest free loan on that over-payment amount.
There are no doubt many pros that go with charitable foundations. I worked as a volunteer for the Food Bank for a few years...
There are also a good many cons or shortfalls in terms of what charitable organizations can do where needed. Would be great if the Food Bank could replace the SNAP program, for example, but it just can't, not by a long shot, for more reasons than I have time to explain here.
That's society voting with their wallets. They do not support that amount of aid. Let the people decide what level of aid they're willing to support via making all aid the function of charities funded by voluntary donations.
I went to the cheapest college around that was approved by the welfare to work program. It was either that or my daughter and me die in the streets because employers refused to employ me because of all my health problems and I needed the money to keep a roof over our heads. Go to college or let me and my daughter die. What a choice. Welfare reformed required either college or a job and society refused to give me and keep me in employment. I cannot force an employer to hire me.
I was turned down for all nongovernment assistance. I never received a single scholarship from my high grades in high school like people kept telling me would happen when I was a kid. I got turned down for those too. I had 100 average in algebra for the entire school year and still didn't get a scholarship for college. I would've graduated in the top four in my class but still no scholarships.
I didn't even want to go to college anymore. If I didn't then my child would've suffered since I couldn't physically do jobs. I was in college off and on from 1994 to 2009 to keep getting financial aid so I could take care of my child, but I kept having to drop out for medical problems and appeal to get back in. Wasn't my fault God never blessed me with a healthy body. I've been sick since I was born. Had God blessed me with good health and a job then I wouldn't have even been in college anymore. I could've graduated in a reasonable time like normal, healthy people.
I tried to never go on disability. I kept holding out trying to get normal with healing and a job like His children promised. I kept praying and begging for it. I ran out of financial aid eligibility, and God still hadn't healed me so I could finally physically work a job. So, I ended up having to go on disability as last resort. If I'd still been eligible for financial aid, I'd still be there taking classes even though I was too sick to work anyway. And my health kept getting worse instead of better. It costs taxpayers thousands of dollars a month to keep me alive.
Thanks. More than a few things to think about as I sign off now until tomorrow, like what it's like to live with a disability, poor health. I suspect you are not living in the lap of government assistance luxury, but I hope things aren't too tough on you as you keep up the good fight...
Start with the great equalizer, the parents. Incentivize fathers in the home. Our welfare system incentivized poor men right out of the home, now they should incentivize them back into the home. Forget privilege, advantage, skin color or inheritance, the true indicator of future poverty is coming from a single parent home. Full stop.
Then, education. Not getting poor kids into failing, institutions of political indoctrination at 2 y/o, but rather letting people decide which schools their kids will attend & holding teachers/admins accountable for the results. Coming back to the parents, they too much be engaged. No school can be expected to educate a kid, who's parents aren't involved in their child's education. Incentivize poor parents to ensure attendance, proper behavior & the completion of homework. Incentivize poor parents to attend all parent teacher conferences. Incentivize poor parents to volunteer in the school on some level. Incentivize them to know the teachers their kids have.
Then onto employment. Every able bodied adult who is not caring for a child under 5 y/o should be working. Kids see their parents working & they absorb that working is the expected norm. The wealth gap hit warp speed since the passing of NAFTA as good paying, blue collar, career jobs were outsourced. Bring those jobs back. Help a man find a job that pays enough to take care of his family, save for a home, buy a car, send his kids to good schools & take a vacation once in a while & watch the crime rate fall. Forget free college for everyone. Not everyone is cut out to be a computer programmer, engineer or marketing expert & God knows we don't need more people wasting time/money on worthless degrees. We need assembly jobs, factory jobs, truck driving jobs, oil/gas jobs & skilled trades where wages are not pushed down due to illegal immigrants filling them. Those jobs should have health insurance, paid vacations and pensions, just like they did before our politicians shipped the jobs overseas. This should not be done by govt decree, but by America-first trade policy. It's no coincidence that we're seeing wages increase for the first time in over a decade as manufacturing jobs are streaming back into the country & unemployment is historically low. Employers have no choice but to offer better compensation packages to entice & keep good workers.
Make these three things happen and the wealth gap would slowly disappear.
Can you even imagine a US household with an income of $59,000 (national average) being expected to pay a 45% effective federal income tax rate? Do you think Americans would agree to that?
As I said before, what you are quoting does not really help your point. Your "effective" income tax rates in Europe include everything, not only the "federal tax" but social security taxes (BOTH employee and employer), estimated VAT (so that would be including the sales taxes here). And after all of this is collected, it covers (for the most part) healthcare, daycare college, parental leaves and so on. All of which are paid differently here, as a separate expense.
So...
1. So you piled different European taxes in one, but call it effective federal tax which is misleading.
2. Now, since you like the term "effective", let's calculate the healthcare costs here (employee and employer), daycare, college, property taxes, and so on. And then calculate the effective tax rate. On the middle class it will be huge. Then you'll have an apples to apples comparison but you don't want that.
As I said before, what you are quoting does not really help your point. Your "effective" income tax rates in Europe include everything, not only the "federal tax" but social security taxes (BOTH employee and employer), estimated VAT (so that would be including the sales taxes here). And after all of this is collected, it covers (for the most part) healthcare, daycare college, parental leaves and so on. All of which are paid differently here, as a separate expenses.
OK, include the average American household's federal taxes on income, national VAT (non-existant in the US, of course), and both employee and employer payroll taxes.
According to the CRS (non-partisan Congressional Research Service), the average income US household pays an effective 3% federal income tax rate. Add to that both the employee AND employer payroll tax rates (15.3%) and that boosts the effective federal tax rate on the average US household to 18.3%. That's FAR below the EU-28 effective federal tax rate of approx 45%.
When Americans agree to pay Euro-style effective tax rates, they can demand Euro-style social program benefits. Does anyone think that will ever happen?
OK, include the average American household's federal taxes on income, national VAT (non-existant in the US, of course), and both employee and employer payroll taxes.
According to the CRS (non-partisan Congressional Research Service), the average income US household pays an effective 3% federal income tax rate. Add to that both the employee AND employer payroll tax rates (15.3%) and that boosts the effective federal tax rate on the average US household to 18.3%. That's FAR below the EU-28 effective federal tax rate of approx 45%.
When Americans agree to pay Euro-style effective tax rates, they can demand Euro-style social program benefits. Does anyone think that will ever happen?
So we are finally getting somewhere. But please do include everything else. Let me start:
20k in childcare per year, that's 20% tax on a 100k family income.
20k health insurance a year, so that's a 20% also if self paid. That will vary based on employer's contribution. Let's assume half and half. In that case it would be 10/110=9%
Property taxes (fair game, because they fund the K-12, while schools are nationally funded in most of Europe). 2.5% of value. If value is x2 or x3 of the income, that's another 5%-7.5% in "effective tax".
Of course child care is not all years, but then the college will need to be accounted for...
I could continue, but that's sufficient.
P.S. No VAT, but sales taxes, hence need to be accounted for.
Yeah, many conservatives pretty strongly feel it's really the rich who are hurting pretty bad. It sure isn't the poor who are hurting. The poor got it made by being on welfare.
No, they don't feel that the rich are hurting. They believe in personal responsibility.
So we are finally getting somewhere. But please do include everything else.
No need. US welfare programs are federally funded. So that's the valid comparison: effective federal/national income tax rate.
Either American average income households ($59,000) want to pay a 45% effective federal income tax rate to get Euro-style social program benefits, or they don't. Take a poll.
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