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Blue collar workers are not the middle class by any standard definition. Middle class is the class between the working class and the upper class. Blue collar fits in the working class.
You can be Blue Collar and be middle class.
I know a custom car painter who makes about $150k.
He could make more than that if he wanted to work more hours.
Is that why they called it the AFFORDABLE care act?
Yup. My $400 month plan with a $2000 deductible is now over $900 a month with a $6000 deductible. In a bad year, I pay almost $18,000 for health care. So affordable!
I've always understood "middle class" to be the point where roughly one third of my income is left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter. Obviously, that figure will vary depending on where you live and how large your family is.
Plenty of both blue and white collar workers will fit that criteria.
This.
Middle class isn't just defined by how much you make, it's how much you HAVE to spend.
People who live in low COL areas can live a middle class lifestyle making $40k.
You have to be smart doing it.....but it can be done.
When we bought our first house in 1998, my wife and I had a combined income of about $50K.
If we can find a political party willing to raise taxes sky-high on billionaires, I'll vote for them, but right now Republicans won't do it and Democrats promise to do it but never do.
Two-thirds of all campaign contributions come from the top 1%, and then there's all the deferred bribes politicians get after leaving office, courtesy of the 0.0001%.
No matter how many times they promise to make the donor class pay, it isn't going to happen.
As for the EU corporate tax rate, **** that!
I don't want EU-style income taxes and unemployment rates.
$5 million isn't a very big number when talking about a farm or family business.
Also, the dollar value of a farm or business would vary from state to state or even within a state.
An olive farm or vineyard in CA will cost more than a corn field or pig farm in KS.
Destroying a business with a one-time death tax doesn't seem like a prudent thing to do.
I would like to find a way to tax the Paris Hiltons of the world back to something less than obscene unearned wealth and still protect family businesses.
Guess what Elliott_CA...it doesn't make a bit of difference what working people want because DC (both parties) is owned by billionaires.
Why should anyone.... billionaires or otherwise, pay "sky high taxes"?
Why should any American pay a higher or lower percentage of their income in taxes than any other American?
not true, a lot of people paid more. The 'tax plan' eliminated the individual exemption making it impossible for the middle class to itemize. People with kids over 16 got screwed they can't get a tax credit for them. There's definitely something wrong when Trump can get away with paying $750 and my husband and I who are retired pay a heck of a lot more than that.
The problem with the tax system is that abuses like this are allowed and it's not just the brackets, its the advantages of the real estate tax code that invites abuse. The IRS isn't going to go after these billionaires with all their resources and lawyers. The 2017 Tax Cut was supposed to simplify the system, it didn't do much in that respect and left all these tax code loopholes for the wealthy that even render the tax brackets meaningless.
Because it is not the tax that is the issue, it is the spending.
Its both but if anyone thinks that this deficit of few trillion dollars can be addressed purely on spending cuts I would like to see the plan. The Tax reform act of 2017 was a solution looking for a problem, you don't cut taxes in a hot economy with massive deficits.
Why? The goal is to increase revenues flowing intothe treasury, and thta is PRECISELY what the Trump tax cuts did!
Tax cuts can incease tax revenues.
Tax increases typically reduce tgax revenues over the long haul.
So, which do you want? More tax revenue, or less?
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