3. It’s fine with me that the small set of individual that have over 90% of the nation’s wealth pay less than their proportion of the taxes because it’s only fair that people making $40,000 with virtually no tangible assets should pony up 10-15% of their income to help pay for a military budget that is larger than the rest of the world’s military budgets combined.
I’m still practicing my straight face on either answer. That old chestnut the trickle down theory is a bunch of bunk – try quenching your thirst with a trickle.
If you define “the rich” as making $200000 or more per year, then taxing them at 100% and seizing 100% of their assets will finance the government for little more than 1/2 the year. There simply aren’t enough “rich” people to finance the runaway spending no matter what the tax rate (and of course the rich will be able to escape to a friendlier country before actually paying much of it).Over 50% of Americans pay no taxes. (And it isn’t the “rich”.) The “middle class” (that pays taxes but isn’t considered “rich”) ends up paying the tax bill – and they are being squeezed from both ends. The root problem is out of control spending. The unconstitutional social programs are 2/3 of it. The military is the biggest constitutional budget item – and it would help to stop playing world policeman. But the unconstitutional programs are what is breaking the bank – and have the most regressive taxes. SS and Medicare tax is mostly paid by the poorest tax payers – the amount is capped, so for the “rich” it is a tiny percentage, but it is 15% (the employer share is a feint that still reduces your actual salary) for the poorest tax payers.
The total wealth of the U.S. (not to be confused with income, which you obviously do) is about $54 trillion. The top 5% of households hold almost 58% of the wealth in this country. That comes out to $31.3 trillion. The Federal budget is about $3.5 trillion. So if we stage a revolution and seize the assets of the rich, we could pay off our $14 trillion deficit and run the country for 5 years or so. Nobody is actually advocating that, but it’s a good picture of just how far we’ve gone off course in the last 40 years in terms of having an egalitarian society.
It’s true that 50% of Americans pay no Federal income taxes. Most of them are making so little money that there’s nothing to tax. It takes a particularly mean spirited person to buy into the idea that a family of four, making $30,000 dollars a year is getting a free ride. They pay a much greater portion of their incomes in all of the other taxes & fees out there. I propose we fix this problem by paying more people a decent living wage. This means the ultra wealthy need to take a little less, but that’s better than having a socialist revolution seize all their assets, isn’t it?
You may not like the social safety net, but most Americans do. The Supreme Court has ruled that Social Security and Medicare are constitutional. 30 years of utter fiscal folly (excluding the Clinton administration which whatever else you think about it, did balance the budget) left us with $10 trillion in debt when Obama came into office. He inherited an economy teetering on the brink of depression. Again, it takes a particularly nasty person to think it’s better to let the nation endure a depression that to run a deficit in order to avert catastrophe. The Bush tax cuts were ruinous to our budget and left us in poor shape to confront an economic bubble bursting.
We need to reform our tax code and the extremely wealthy are going to have to pay a little bigger share. We need to look at some of the stupid subsidies for corporations and mega-agriculture. We really need to get on the side of labor and start demanding better pay for ourselves.
Hollander nailed this one. We don’t need someone shilling lies for the economic elite.
crlinder almost 13 years ago
3. It’s fine with me that the small set of individual that have over 90% of the nation’s wealth pay less than their proportion of the taxes because it’s only fair that people making $40,000 with virtually no tangible assets should pony up 10-15% of their income to help pay for a military budget that is larger than the rest of the world’s military budgets combined.
reese828 almost 13 years ago
I’m still practicing my straight face on either answer. That old chestnut the trickle down theory is a bunch of bunk – try quenching your thirst with a trickle.
stuart almost 13 years ago
If you define “the rich” as making $200000 or more per year, then taxing them at 100% and seizing 100% of their assets will finance the government for little more than 1/2 the year. There simply aren’t enough “rich” people to finance the runaway spending no matter what the tax rate (and of course the rich will be able to escape to a friendlier country before actually paying much of it).Over 50% of Americans pay no taxes. (And it isn’t the “rich”.) The “middle class” (that pays taxes but isn’t considered “rich”) ends up paying the tax bill – and they are being squeezed from both ends. The root problem is out of control spending. The unconstitutional social programs are 2/3 of it. The military is the biggest constitutional budget item – and it would help to stop playing world policeman. But the unconstitutional programs are what is breaking the bank – and have the most regressive taxes. SS and Medicare tax is mostly paid by the poorest tax payers – the amount is capped, so for the “rich” it is a tiny percentage, but it is 15% (the employer share is a feint that still reduces your actual salary) for the poorest tax payers.
Uncle Joe Premium Member almost 13 years ago
@ Stuart- Wow, not a shred of truth:
The total wealth of the U.S. (not to be confused with income, which you obviously do) is about $54 trillion. The top 5% of households hold almost 58% of the wealth in this country. That comes out to $31.3 trillion. The Federal budget is about $3.5 trillion. So if we stage a revolution and seize the assets of the rich, we could pay off our $14 trillion deficit and run the country for 5 years or so. Nobody is actually advocating that, but it’s a good picture of just how far we’ve gone off course in the last 40 years in terms of having an egalitarian society.
It’s true that 50% of Americans pay no Federal income taxes. Most of them are making so little money that there’s nothing to tax. It takes a particularly mean spirited person to buy into the idea that a family of four, making $30,000 dollars a year is getting a free ride. They pay a much greater portion of their incomes in all of the other taxes & fees out there. I propose we fix this problem by paying more people a decent living wage. This means the ultra wealthy need to take a little less, but that’s better than having a socialist revolution seize all their assets, isn’t it?
You may not like the social safety net, but most Americans do. The Supreme Court has ruled that Social Security and Medicare are constitutional. 30 years of utter fiscal folly (excluding the Clinton administration which whatever else you think about it, did balance the budget) left us with $10 trillion in debt when Obama came into office. He inherited an economy teetering on the brink of depression. Again, it takes a particularly nasty person to think it’s better to let the nation endure a depression that to run a deficit in order to avert catastrophe. The Bush tax cuts were ruinous to our budget and left us in poor shape to confront an economic bubble bursting.
We need to reform our tax code and the extremely wealthy are going to have to pay a little bigger share. We need to look at some of the stupid subsidies for corporations and mega-agriculture. We really need to get on the side of labor and start demanding better pay for ourselves.
Hollander nailed this one. We don’t need someone shilling lies for the economic elite.
AuntHoolia almost 13 years ago
Yay, John. I’m not good enough at recalling these stats on the spot to refute arguments as they arise. I’m very glad that you are.