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Everyone should have to pay something, but the obscenely wealthy should pay much more.
It's not like they actually work for their money.
Other people, the lower classes, do that for them.
I believe taxing accumulated wealth is preferable to taxing income.
If you want to live in the United States and have status and the many advantages that accompany great wealth, you can pay for it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lieqiang
Well your wish as been granted, the obscenely wealthy already do pay more taxes.
How would you possibly know how hard someone like Bill Gates worked to become wealthy? From Whittham:
- Apple CEO Tim Cook begins emailing employees at 4:30am, is the first one in the office and the last to leave. He also holds staff meetings on Sunday evenings to prepare for the week.
- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in his earlier days was working 12-hour days 7 days a week and started at 3am. He has significantly toned that down after his company has joined the $1 trillion dollar club.
- The former CEO of General Electric Jeff Immelt spent 24 years putting in 100-hour work weeks.
- Mark Cuban, billionaire investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks quoted “Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you.” Before Cuban had kids, he was working non-stop and would wake up in the middle of the night with an idea and would start working on it staying up until the next night. He also went 7 years without taking one vacation.
- Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi put herself through Yale earning her master’s degree while working a graveyard shift as a receptionist. Her work schedule now starts at 4am and it is not out of the ordinary that she stops working at midnight.
Sorry, didn't realize I would have to explain this....
By "working for money" I mean the sort of ****ty work that the people at the bottom do and for the sort of ****ty money people at the bottom are paid.
It's nice that those knocking down millions every year in pay and much more in exclusive benefits spend a few hours on Sunday getting ready for Monday, but meetings and sending out e-mails are what working people call a break.
I happen to work at one of the companies you listed.
I maintain their equipment, so I get to see first hand how they treat their employees.
These people work non-stop, like machines.
They are paid just enough so that they can't get anywhere in life.
All while the company makes billions off their labor.
As for these top executives that are the first in and the last out, I'd stay there all day too if everyone in the building had to **** me every time I walked in the room.
Or maybe we should cut government spending?
Isn't that the main problem, the fact that our government has put America into trillions of dollars of debt by wasting our tax dollars.
Raising taxes for a government that continually wastes trillions of dollars is not a solution for anything.
Sure, run for office on a platform of cutting benefits that people are already receiving and see how many votes you get.
What about the 50% who don't pay a dime but receive virtually all the benefits?
Show me someone who is not paying ANY of the cacajillion different taxes we have.
I have all of these taxes to pay.
Social Security tax
Medicare tax
Payroll tax
Federal income tax
State income tax
County income tax
State sales tax
City sales tax surcharge
City food and beverage tax
County real property tax (renters pay in the rent)
City real property tax (renters pay in the rent)
School tax (collection method varies, in county property tax here)
Storm water tax (in water bill)
Trash collection tax (in water bill)
Motor fuel tax
Vehicle excise tax
Parking fees
Tolls
Utility taxes
Sales taxes on utility bills
Permit fees for various activities (e.g. garage sales)
So people earning under $50,000 essentially pay zero income tax? What about payroll taxes for SS and Medicare, do they not pay into those programs?
That was just income tax
Yes, they pay SS and Medicare
A total ban on property tax (and municipal governments too - we have too many levels of government)
Sales taxes on nonessential products - not on essentials or labor
Require all politicians in office to pay 3 times the taxes they make others pay.
Stick hundreds of needles into anyone who wants a mask or vaccine mandate.
Sure, run for office on a platform of cutting benefits that people are already receiving and see how many votes you get.
Austerity doesn't sell in 2021.
You think that benefit programs are the only area where spending could be cut? The IRS alone has a budget of $12B. We could simplify the tax code and cut that amount by at least a quarter. Our entire federal government is an overwhelming example of how not to run an efficient agency. There is exactly zero reason that the entity with the least constitutional authority should be spending more than it generates in confiscated revenue.
We could balance the budget and remove the need for excessive taxation with an Amendment which required that any budget increases over a reasonable amount be shelved until the next election. Or with a term limit for senators and representatives. Or by requiring budget increases in one area of government spending be accompanied by corresponding budget cuts in other areas. If we wanted, and my personal favorite, we could require that any president, senator and representative who votes for budget increases be docked a percentage point of their pay for every percentage point of GDP that the government goes into deficit. When it starts affecting them personally, they’ll learn how to budget other people’s money by practicing on their own. Bonus, it will show us which ones really care about their causes.
I’ve long been intrigued with the idea of placing half the pay of senators and representatives in a trust that is tied to the annual budget, going up or down in relation to how balanced the budget is with no bottom limit but a cap of 4 or 5 percent on gains. I think that one could be workable. Even with a 3% budget surplus there’d be plenty left after paying the elected officials for good behavior that it could be sent back to the taxpayers as a refund or used to shore up Medicare and Social Security, both of which always seem to be in imminent danger come election season.
Last edited by JimRom; 09-18-2021 at 11:58 PM..
Reason: Forgot to finish a sentence. Sorry if you read it before edit.
From 1950 on, for over a decade we had some amazing growth in GDP. And you will find insanely high tax rates. 91% for incomes of over a couple million for example. And importantly we all shared in that growth back then. That changed later in 1970. So here we go, and I will add some.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGoodTheBadTheUgly
for incomes over $523,600...?
I want to respond to this specifically though. Theres a VAST difference between a income of 523K, and a income of 2 million for example. So lets start there, and use the tax rates in 1950 that led to such gains in the GDP during a time where we shared all of that more. Im going to add a over 2 million though.
for incomes over $2,000,000?
90%. I know, you thought I would take the 91%, but I liked a round number. Lets also be honest, in the 1950s its widely estimated that the effective tax rate for those in that bracket was around 45%.
for incomes over $209,425...?
40%
for incomes over $164,925...?
35%
for incomes over $86,375....?
20%
for incomes over $40,525....?
0
for incomes over $9,950.....?
0
for incomes up to $9,950.....?
0
So some explanations, Why do I not support taxing incomes under 40K? I think its unreasonable to tax that which is necessary to survive. Full stop. That 90% tax rate? Even today everyone knows that the rich will simply hide money etc. and get it down to 45% much like in the 1950s. A lot might just invest more in their companies to avoid the higher tax rate for example.
Flat taxers? Yeah no. Heres the thing-who benefits more from the infrastructure, etc etc. Bill gates success is based on a ton of government spending.
How about a simple flat tax rebate system?
income under 60K exempt. tied to inflation obviously.
income under that is taxed at 60%. Every month anything in excess of what is required to run the government, is refunded to the people.
And all income is income. rental income, stock gains, etc etc. Yes even in wills. No more playing games here.
Voila. Everyone wants us to make more money, because that increases everyones standard of living.
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