Originally posted by: CasmirRadon
Originally posted by: Monotaur
Can you explain what you mean by "And you do realize that extremely extremely rich people pay relatively LESS in taxes than you do?"? This doesn't make any sense. And, even if it did, no proposed tax plan would EVER fix that. Will it matter, (all fairness aside), if Kerry raises the tax for the highest of brackets? No, because they do not pay taxes based off of this income - they hide it by buying rental houses and depreciating them, etc, and then paying taxes on what is left over. The only fair tax plan is a flat tax... imagine how simple (and fair!) that would be. But, do you ever hear of any candidates talking about this? No - they want to play the percentage games for more votes.
And then there is the amount of money saved by drastically reducing the IRS, etc, ...
My thoughts might be a little jarbled on this subject, and I'm getting a bit tired of this thread, but I don't want to run away without replying.
There are many reasons why the top 10, 5, 1 percent of richest Americans pay less (relatively) than lower classes. Part of it is because their wealth is tied up in capitol instead of yearly income. It is far easier to decrease taxes on capitol without anyone (but the rich) knowing about it, because people like us probably don't have any to speak of. And when I talk about capitol I mean houses, stocks, land, things like that. Lots of people who aren't rich do own houses... but there is another hidden truth with that too. See rich people, who own giant houses recieve big subsidies, and make enough money just through subsidies to finance an entire lower class family. Meanwhile, average American house owners have to get a second mortgage, which means they are mostly paying interest, which means they don't own any capitol, which probably means they will default on their loan (more and more common), and guess what? Rich people invest in mortgages, so they make money when you lose it.
Remember the death tax? Well it is actually called the estate tax, it was one of the most fair and useful taxes to ever exist. It would have
never applied to anyone who was not super wealthy (it didn't apply to estates that were worth less than several million dollars) and it taxed people a fair amount for them. This was to get some money back when rich people put all their income into giant estates, then pass it on to their children tax free.
I remember reading last year about how the green party wanted a flat tax, but that is just because the top percent of rich people were actually paying a SMALLER percentage of their income than poor people.
Here is a trick question. I make a million dollars a year. You make $14,000 a year (the poverty level). We both pay 10% tax.... which of us is going to have trouble buying dinner some months?
Here's a thought. Maybe people that are officially classified as living in poverty (to be realistic the figure should probably be closer to $20,000 a year) shouldn't have to pay taxes. Why kick them when their down? I mean, doesn't it help enough that they are willing to work in horrible jobs, for horrible pay, probably without overtime, for huge amounts of hours each week... and have almost nothing to show for it? I mean, that is how the wealthy make their money right? It wouldn't be so great if suddenly no one wanted to work all those thousands of "unskilled" jobs.
Ouch, if I'm long-winded, you should know it is because I'm putting off an essay. Time to get back to college (and write a sociological paper about the declining middle-class).