"The wealthy need to pay their share of taxes"...huh?

[XD 9 Loaded Sub-Compact]

Taxes Explained

1.)
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and was for distribution of all wealth. She felt deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican which she expressed openly.

One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to higher taxes on the rich & more welfare programs. In the middle of her heart-felt diatribe based upon the lectures she had from her far left professors at her school, he stopped her and asked her point blank, how she was doing in school.

She answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain. That she had to study all the time, never had time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying. That she was taking a more difficult curriculum.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Mary." She replied, "Mary is barely getting by", she continued, "all she has is barely a 2.0 GPA" adding, "and all she takes are easy classes and she never studies." But to explain further she continued emotionally, "But Mary is so very popular on campus, college for her is a blast, she goes to all the parties all the time and very often doesn't even show up for classes because she is too hung over."

Her father then asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to her friend who only had a 2.0." He continued, "That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter visibly shocked by the fathers suggestion angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair! I worked really hard for mine, I did without and Mary has done little or nothing, she played while I worked real hard!"

The father slowly smiled and said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."




2.)
Suppose that ten people go together to the local restaurant for lunch every day at noon. The total bill for all ten comes to $100. If it was paid the our federal income taxes are paid, the first four people would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $2; the seventh $5; the eighth $8; the ninth $18. The tenth person (obviously the richest) would pay $66. (This info alone should shock you.)
The ten people ate lunch in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20. Now lunch for the ten only costs $80!
Oh, but what should they do with this "extra" money that would be "fair"? The first four should be unaffected; they still eat for free. Can we figure out how to divvy up the $20 savings among the remaining six so that everyone gets their fair share? The people realize that $20 divided by 6 is $3.33, but if they subtract that from everybody's share, then the fifth person and the sixth person would end up being paid to eat their meal, and this will surely not be acceptable to the rest. The restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount where possible, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so the fifth person paid nothing, the sixth person paid nothing, the seventh paid $2, the eighth paid $5, the ninth paid $15, leaving the tenth person with a bill of $58 instead of $66. Outside the restaurant, the people began to compare their savings.
"I only got $2 out the $20," declared the sixth person pointing to the tenth, "and they got $8!"
"Yeah, that's right!" exclaimed the fifth person. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that they got eight times more than I did!"
"That's true!" shouted the seventh person. "Why should he get $8 back when I got only $3? The wealthy get all the breaks."
"Wait a minute!" yelled the first four people in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. This system exploits the poor."
The nine people surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next day the tenth person didn't show up for lunch, so the nine sat down and ate without him. Besides, now they did not really want his company anyway. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important—they were $58 short!

[FLSTFI Dave]

Originally Posted by kannibul

Sure, when you consider the dollar having a flat value across the board.

Lets take tax off the table.

I have $100. You have $1.

We both go to McDonalds. I order something off the Dollar menu, and you order something off the dollar menu.

Who does that dollar mean more to? Who felt that cost more?


Because it's based on percentages, of course people who have more, pay more. However, when you consider that the value of a dollar for a person who has billions and recieves $200K/yr on interest alone, versus someone who earns $50K/yr working their butts off -the value of the dollar is NOT equal - thus, taxation on that dollar should also not be equal.

What gets me is the people who DON'T pay taxes AND have the money and the means to pay their share...

Lets say I earn 100K a year, and Joe earns 25K a year. We are both married with 2 kids.
I am taxed at 29%, Joe is not taxed....that is our current tax code.

So Joe still has 25K, but I now only have 71K.

How is that fair?

Joe works 40 hours a week, I work 70 hours a week still fair.

[Brickboy240]

So apparently is ok so punish those that work harder than others?

Odd, because I'll bet these are the same people that complain about lay-offs and jobs being outsourced overseas or cheap illegal immigrant labor. Amazing! All of that came about, because govt. made it harder and harder to keep these businesses in the USA. Wealthy business people are not stupid - they're going where they can make money...be it here or China or Mexico.

If we continue to punish those that work hard, what kind of country do you think we'll have? You all want a gasoline alternative..ok...why should anyone work hard at this or sink their savings into such a venture? The govt. will only take a huge chunk of it away...where is the incentive to bring this or other new technologies foreward if you are punished if you make too much in the process? Do you all expect those that take risks and work harder to work for free or for the wages of the same guy that sweeps floors?

I'll also ask, do you think America would be better off without all these pesky wealthy people? How? Have you ever gotten a job from a poor person or someone that is homeless?

Also, do all of you think it is ok that the govt. taxes domestic businesses at higher rates than they do foreign based businesses?

I am still trying to get past how some think the poor are affected by tax cuts when they don't pay income taxes to begin with.

We must have alot of Obama voters here...or maybe just those that slept through Economics 101, eh?

LOL

- Brickboy240

[FLSTFI Dave]

Originally Posted by Palmguy

Put another way...

You and I both go to McDonald's. I have $100 and you have $1. You feel that you deserve to have two Big Macs, large fries and coke, and a McFlurry, and McDonald's makes me pay for your $10 lunch.

How is that fair?

We said, and that is how our system works

[jkswiss]

Originally Posted by Brickboy240

Myth:

The rich are hiding their wealth from the taxman, get all sorts of breaks and need to pay their fair share of taxes.

(as repeated by Hillary and Obama over and over again...)



Truth:

The top 25% of wage earners pay 86% of all Federal Income Taxes.

The top 50% of wage earners pay 97% of all Federal Income Taxes.

The top 1% of wage earners pay 39% of all Federal Income Taxes.

(looks like the wealthy are shouldering almost ALL the income tax burden!)


meanwhile....
The bottom 25% of wage earners pay NO Federal Income Taxes at all.

Define wage earners. Because if its what I'm thinking, the people with real money definitely do not earn wages. They have assets that create wealth for them, they have capital gains, they have stock options, they have their wealth tied in business equity and securities. Take Steve Jobs who has a salary of $1 a year.
Wage earners (i.e. not an investor by trade) get taxed out the a$$.
Tax rates from wiki

• 10%: from $0 to $8,025
• 15%: from $8,026 to $32,550
• 25%: from $32,551 to $78,850
• 28%: from $78,851 to $164,550
• 33%: from $164,551 to $357,700
• 35%: $357,701 and above

And remember, taxes are marginal, meaning that someone who makes $400k isn't taxed at 35% on the whole thing but only on the amount above 357,701.
Warren Buffet himself says he paid less in taxes percentage wise than his secretary.
Capital gains tax is 15% on stocks if you hold those assets for more than a year, so in effect, someone who is worth millions(or billions) can be taxed at the same rate as someone who makes $8k a year. You're deluding yourself if you think that the tax system right now isn't set up so it advantages the status quo. The whole tax system is set up to reward investing, something the average person can't do effectively with the small amount of assets they have. Corporations can expense interest. Why can't we expense our credit card interest and car loan interest? The only bone they threw us was our mortgage interest being tax deductible.
You fail the mention that the U.S. has one of the worst cases of wealth stratification among industrialized nations.
The Top 10% owns 70% of the wealth in the U.S. Bottom 40% owns 1% of the wealth. They pay that much in taxes because the rest of us are scraggling around for whats left. The upper crust really has it pretty swell tax wise.

[JeffXD]

If I only have $1 I don't have any damn business going to McDonalds to get lunch. I need to go buy me some Raman Noodles and have several meals instead of just one burger. Maybe if I can find another dollar or two or get some cash collecting aluminum cans I can buy me a loaf of bread and a pack of bologna and eat for a week. Maybe I need to be a better money manager than I am and not eat at McDonalds.

I am just saying.....

[cmcarlile]

Mmmmmm.... Ramen!

[Etta Place]

Originally Posted by kannibul

Sure, when you consider the dollar having a flat value across the board.

Lets take tax off the table.

I have $100. You have $1.

We both go to McDonalds. I order something off the Dollar menu, and you order something off the dollar menu.

Who does that dollar mean more to? Who felt that cost more?


Because it's based on percentages, of course people who have more, pay more. However, when you consider that the value of a dollar for a person who has billions and recieves $200K/yr on interest alone, versus someone who earns $50K/yr working their butts off -the value of the dollar is NOT equal - thus, taxation on that dollar should also not be equal.

What gets me is the people who DON'T pay taxes AND have the money and the means to pay their share...

This is correct.

[XDConvert9mm]

Originally Posted by Etta Place

This is correct.

How...uhhh....how?

[XD 9 Loaded Sub-Compact]

Originally Posted by XDConvert9mm

How...uhhh....how?

+1