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Guest Post: On (Delayed) Tax Day
Submitted by Brad Schaeffer
On (Delayed) Tax Day
Ah, April 15th! I want you to consider that the date means absolutely nothing to 47% of US households as they will pay zero in federal income tax. Yes, state, property and sin taxes still get them, but we are seeing a disturbing trend towards a tipping point where fewer than half of us pay any sort of income tax. Five years ago it was 40% who paid no income tax. By 2012 this could be the first election in which the majority of voters will be able to vote themselves more government largess paid for by a minority of taxpayers. We may soon have to re-jigger the American Revolution’s familiar rallying cry into: “Representation Without Taxation!”
Statistics vary slightly but it can be argued that the top five percent of US households pay 60% of federal income tax. Ten percent account for over 75%. Another two-fifths make up the rest. And half are exempt. And yet…twenty percent of US households get 75% of their income from the federal government. Another one-fifth receives 40% of their financial support from Uncle Sam. Think about what this means in terms of fiscal responsibility down the road. How receptive to cutting taxes which they do not pay, or cutting government spending, from which they benefit, is a majority voting block going to be in the future? Indeed, what does this say about our prospects for economic growth or curbing the size and scope of an ever growing government colossus in the face of a crushing $20 trillion deficit looming on the horizon?
Very soon we may not be merely de-incentivizing economic activity but actively waging war on it.
Obamacare is but the most recent and fiscally insane manifestation of this myopia that now holds sway in the capitol and white
house—and has for over a decade regardless of the party in power (in case one thinks this overtly partisan). I am coming to fear that this administration is not about mere “spreading the wealth” as 2008 candidate Obama let slip in a revealing off-teleprompter moment. Rather its aim is to increase dependency upon the state based upon an illogical faith in the judgment of detached federal bureaucrats over the parochial citizenry. It is also about cynically creating a permanent voting block addicted to government hand-outs which will in turn reward politicians with life-time tenure so long as they keep the gravy train of our confiscated wealth flowing. Democracy’s most insidious enemy is the gradual devolution into the tyranny of the majority where 51% of the populace can vote again and again to empty the pockets of the other 49%. Not only is this dynamic morally wrong, this is the death knell for a free and vibrant republic as wealth will inevitably flee to safer havens (or to the black market) taking future prosperity and stability with it. How many of us ever got a job from a poor man?
A lot of harm in the world has been done by intellectuals who started off with noble intentions but little understanding of how the real world operates. Consider the on-going Eurozone’s massive bail-outs of financially distressed states like Greece because, at the risk of oversimplifying, the ballooning costs of its overly-generous state entitlement apparatus eventually overwhelmed its tax base—25% of which has been driven underground. It should be a stark lesson in the mathematical limits of trying to financially engineer social justice…one Washington should watch very closely. Unless, of course, the aim is just the accumulation of raw power through expanding government and manifesting life-time tenures in Congress by robbing productive Peters to pay suckling Pauls in exchange for votes. Then the lessons screaming at us from across the pond are irrelevant.
In the meantime, Happy Tax Day! I’m sure our money is being well spent.
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Democracy! Hmmmmmm.
How about this for a novel idea?
Consider the notion of a constitutional republic, where changes to the constitution were mandated only through referendum, rather than through polarized partisanship, presidential decree or political meddling.
We could draft a document based on the wisdom of ages that establishes the notion that all men are equally blessed with the right to persue a life of their own making, to set up communities of like minded folk.
That should give you the opportunity to gather as a socialist state, whereby you can tax each other so as to support your desires through mutual wealth transfer or gather in groups where work is repaid with fruits of your own labor, wealth transfer decided through value exchanges.
I wonder which group would come begging at the other groups door first. There would, on second thoughts, be no begging about it. They would come fully armed, demand notes in hand. We are there.
Made me laugh. Referendum? But that is a democracy's hallmark...
Referendum on changes to the constitution ONLY. The right to vote? That is the hallmark of liberty, not democracy. The yoke of democracy polarizes and divides citizens. Look to the constitution. Revive the republic.
You need informed people for a "democracy" to work...same for a referendum. My experience is such that when sheeples...oops, I mean people vote on these issues they vote away their rights:
http://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=2819
Heavy marketing by insurers taught the sheeples what's "best" for them and they ignored every Texas Supreme Court Justice (all Republican!), Democrate leaders, and both defense and platintiff lawyers bar---all of whom told Texans not to vote their rights away. Texans later regretted their vote, but alas, too late since it was a Constitutional Amendment that will most likely never be voted upon again.
Tax Day. As if we are not being robbed by the armed gang that calls itself our government every other day of the year as well. The income tax is a badge of slavery. We should be ashamed to put up with it.
Mr Schaeffer, you sir, are an idiot. Nevermind that 47% of America is too poor to squeeze anything more out of. That's not the problem? It's just that half the country is too lazy now and would rather take hand outs? Do you honestly believe the shit you write?
Consider this:
WHERE BEST TO BE POOR?What has historically been defined as "poverty," nationally or internationally, no longer exists in the United States, says economist Walter Williams.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the 2009 poverty guideline was $22,000 for an urban four-person family. In 2009, having income less than that, 15 percent or 40 million Americans were classified as poor, but there's something unique about those "poor" people not seen anywhere else in the world. Robert Rector, researcher at the Heritage Foundation, presents data collected from several government sources in a report titled "How Poor Are America's Poor? Examining the 'Plague' of Poverty in America":
· Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes; the average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage and a porch or patio.
· Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning; by contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
· Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded; two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
· The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens and other cities throughout Europe (these comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor).
· Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
· Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
· Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
· Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.
Material poverty can be measured relatively or absolutely. An absolute measure would consist of some minimum quantity of goods and services deemed adequate for a baseline level of survival. Achieving that level means that poverty has been eliminated. However, if poverty is defined as, say, the lowest one-fifth of the income distribution, it is impossible to eliminate poverty. Everyone's income could double, triple and quadruple, but there will always be the lowest one-fifth, explains Williams.
Source: Walter Williams, "Where Best To Be Poor," Jewish World Review, June 30, 2010.
And remember, income and resources and credits received from welfare assistance programs are not counted as "income" when tallying income.
It is a stupid collection of data.
Comparison to people living in a general environment like a European city to people living where in the US, an average made over the nation?
Living in a city has a price because its brings a lot of benefits to people.
It shows everywhere as people who have two homes, one in a big city and the other in the country, generally, have more space in their country home.
Once again, typical US approach: guys were fast talkers, they understand they cant deliver on their promises, so they are distorted the perception of reality to make it appear as they delivered on their promises.
Mission accomplished as they said.
Our poor people do pretty well here in comparison. I am not sure who is distorting reality the most.
If you are poor but maintain stable employment, dont spend.irresponsibly, show loyalty to your boss, stay married, and know how to shop, budget, and cook at home from basics then you van have a good life.
I stay in touch with the latin community because i speak.spanish and.know.good.honest laborers and where to find them. They live.incredibly.well and know how to make cheap cuts of meat delicious and shop at garage sales and resale shops. I found an amazing italian suit for fifty bucks barely worn. I wore it to an interview for my first 100,000 per year job along with a fake expensive watch ( a really good fake.that cost thirty bucks) just as a.personal statement of my values.
You, actually, are the idiot, as you completely missed the rather clearly elucidated point of the essay. Which is, 47% of the country has made the other 53% its slaves.
Schizophrenic?
Am I right? Take your Risperidone paid for by Medicare or Medicaid. If you can'y afford it: well you are a slave to your mental pathology and will be free. Makes sense no? Somehow?
Ad hominem, much?
No. Simply a possible diagnosis.
Look up Taylors' thinking on Ad hominem...
Brad Schaeffer is the co-founder and C.E.O. of INFA Energy Brokers, LLC, an OTC energy derivatives brokerage firm. He graduated with honors from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign. A veteran of the commodities markets since 1989, he has built a respected career as a successful entrepreneur in the area of complex derivatives. Brad has appeared on Fox Business News and CNBC as both an energy analyst and political/social pundit. His eclectic battery of commentary ranges from business, to politics, to history, pop culture and the arts. He has been a featured writer for numerous blogs including Andrew Breitbart's "Big" Sites, FrumForum, CNBC NetNet, and Zerohedge, and his views have been cited in the New York Times, LA Times and Christian Science Monitor. A Chicago native, he currently resides in New Jersey...
A productive member of society. Egad.
ROFL they don't pay taxes because of the system set up, i.e. there are no good jobs that pay anything worth being taxed.
Oh the problem is that too few people get taxed? The REAL problem is, the fraudulent borrowed and proven failure of an economic system PLACES that many people in such destitution, they cannot even make enough to be taxed without taking literally food out of their mouths.
Oh yes...it's the people's fault. Nope, it's the setup, and those people that aren't paying taxes, are already not being represented.
Talk about getting things ass backwards.
Glass-Steagall, and start levying the taxes where they should be, on the oligarchs and corporations instead of lementing the poor serfs that said people have already plundered and screwed over. The douche bag's answer is to take even more power from them? Wow, simply wow. As if what the douche bag represents hasn't already taken enough. He says 51 percent empty the other 49 percent? HA, it's .1 percent who fool at least 49.9 percent of the others, to take away from 99.9 percent in total.
Go ahead and believe this guys bullshit sophistry that's ass backwards, I'm sure it'll lead to a better place for you, as if the whole system we're running hasn't been completely what he's favored up until now, and this is where we are as a RESULT. yes, more of the same anti-american economics will lead to an increase of the american ideal.
Glass-Steagall and quit fighting amongst your fellow serfs for the ever decreasing scraps thanks to HIS style of thinking. Remember, the debt he's so concerned about paying off (i'm sure) is fraud, and doesn't need paying off, it needs to be canceled.
Glass-Steagall is your answer? You're a dope.
The income tax and the federal reserve are the two most insidious, most evil creations ever foisted on this country. They have turned us from a nation of free men into a nation of slaves. The income tax turns us into slaves by taking the fruits of our labor from us by force--THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF SLAVERY. Then, what is left over, is gradually taken away from us by inflation, thanks to the Federal Reserve.
Glass-Steagall is a fart in a hurricane. You need to smarten up.
Taking by force is the definition of extortion, not slavery.
US citizens have big troubles perceiving themselves and need to depict themselves as slaves for victimoly's sake.
Fed up with income tax? Easy to get out of this one, you surrender your US citizenship, and move out of the US. One solution. Or you make less than what is needed to pay the income tax.
No slavery in that.
So what is your point? You're advocating extortion?
Taking by force is the definition of ROBBERY. (Look it up...no, really)
Perpetual, perennial robbery is the very meaning of slavery.
ROFL, more sophistry.
Well since we have all this debt, that are going to be paid off with taxes, shouldn't we at least check to see if they are actually legitimate debt?
That's what Glass-Steagall does. It legally asks the question 'Is this debt legitimate...yes or no?' Guess what most of ours is. ILLEGITIMATE.
Guess what, if we didn't run a monetary system, via the federal reserve, we could utter credit, and this credit would be paid back and destroyed...since it doesn't need to be then loaned out again and again creating bubbles, since it is not 'debt' like we know 'debt'. The gov't is not in hock for small business loans.
Gov't utters credit to small businessman, small business man pays it off. No public debt is there in this process.
Guess how high our taxes are then for the individual? A lot lower than now for 99 percent of people. But what does that matter?
Glass-Steagall is a fart in a hurricane? Wow, simply wow. First understand Glass-Steagall and what it means, in tandem with the Hamiltonian Credit System. Understand that with Glass-Steagall there is no dot com crap, no S&l crisis, no 2008 disaster, and none of what is building, because all the pathways that brought us to these farces, would be illegal, on a structural level. How do you fall off a building, if there is no building to fall off of? Well with Glass-Steagall there is no Tower of Babel so speak to fall off of.
I'm a dope? You're the one that says if you pay say a penny in tax, you're a slave. That is asinine, and one who believes in such pure sophistry, allows one to go off track, and to come to an invalid conclusion from an invalid premise.
It wasn't no taxation...it was no taxation without representation. I've already shown the way not only to get rid of our debt, but how to lower taxes as well for all except the corporations and oligarchs. Just because the serf gets food stamps, unemployment insurance, etc., doesn't mean they are being represented.
You need to smarten up, because you're missing the point completely, and grasping on bullshit that will lead you without a valid conclusion or any idea of where we should go, or how to get there. I repeat, it is not the fault of the poor, that the rest are being squeezed, it's the SETUP of the fraudulent economic system, that we borrowed from idiots. The problem is UP the chain, not down it. Go blame your problems on the right people, not the serfs who are being screwed the hardest.
@JMC - for the most part, it seems you agree with the fraudulent nature of the Fed/fractional reserve banking system. As I have said before to you, I guess I don't understand how G-S ends those particular structural issues. I see G-S as a separation between Investment Banking and Commercial Banking, but that would NOT imply the end of the Fed and fractional reserve banking. Therefore, I've always appreciated your passion, but don't understand how you laser-like focus on G-S as some panacea to end our current monetary system...Can you explain a bit further how G-S would end the current monetary regime?
The debt will be paid off with gross inflation, not taxes. Don't use those as an excuse to rob me while you devalue my wages. (Says Vlad to .gov)
Brad has his nose so far up the kleptocrat's butts a well thought out response is unwarranted. People like him make their money by robbery.
You guys keep defining kleptocrat downward until it includes joe the plumber and other small trades people who own their own business.
Our electrician has a six figure income because he owns.his own business and works twice the average hours, yet you guys want to keep taxing this kleptocrat to the point he loses his work incentive.
When we turn greek with everyone suspicious of each other and people either working in the underground economy or just losing their incentive to take risk and try to better themselves we will have redistributionists to blame for america becoming a backwater. We will also all be poor together.
In Greece and other places where setting up a legal official business just means you are a sucker, everyone has become a little bit John Galt.
In case some of you non five percenters wonder how i know so many successful small business owners i will tell you.
We small business men think alike. We are.mostly slightly anti big government. We hang out with each other because we prefer the company of other successful people, not necessarily because they are successful, but because we understand each other even though we have differing educational levels. We have a commonality of interests and a comeraderie.
Yes we help each other out and.give each other special deals we dont give to the rest of you. Yes there is a secret club and you are not invited. You have to earn admission on your own.
We love to find young anbitious people who want to join us and have the right attitude. They can be.junior members with much of the same access to "club deals and opportunities" until they can earn admission on their own merits.
Manor born don't support the peasants, just like whales don't feed the plankton. Two things: Income Tax is levied on AGI. What one needs to know first is percentage of income that escapes taxation for one. And most importantly, it is not the share of overall taxes paid that matters, but the tax rate itself.
So while the top 10% pays 70% of all individual income taxes, the actual tax rate is only 18.7%.
One can't let these pigs pull wool over your eyes. You can't trust any economic or financial information that is thrown out at you by academics, think tanks, hedge funds or other Power Elites.
The issue of taxation is very simple: the bottom 50% AGI income is less than $34,000--they have no taxable income.
Whales and other animals do feed the plankton with their shit amd ultimately with their bodies. Bad analogy.
But lazy socialists who want income redistributed to their advantage will use any rationalization and analogy.
Poor koreans come over with ten thousand dollars, find a cheap storefront in a dangerous neighborhood, work their ass off and defer consumption so their kids.can have a better life. Their work ethic shows in a.higher than average income compared to other racial groups.
But you lazy socialists who dont want to work hard.feel that those.who do have some pride and an independent streak should.hand over their money to you. You of course probably the typical parlour socialist who thinks of himself as too good to do real, honest labor.
''Suicide Note From Labor''
Darkness, it was my job, my labor would not sustain me. I noticed the darkness, it did not secure me. I am homeless. I sold my home. I have no debt. I am flush with cash. Zero interest, I noticed ...and I own nothing. No job because of the darkness, I am the darkness now.
Chairsatan's tax collector files their own return and audits it, leaves the suicide note and the Bible open to>>> http://bible.cc/john/9-4.htm
By definition, the USA is a consumption lead economy and the 'American Dream' can only be truly fulfilled by Americans spending more than they earn.
Simple solution: abolish income tax, introduce consumption tax. Surely that would raise more money? More over, it would raise more money by encouraging Americans to fully embrace the American Dream. Sorted.
It is interesting how socialists on this thread justify helping themselves to other peoples money by saying those top five percent or so just stole it from the rest of us.
How has a hard working restaurant and bar owner who has made it into the top five percent stolen from you?
I see a view among socialists that working hard and becoming wealthy is somehow thieving from others. There are many plumbers, electricians, gunsmiths, and mechanics who have taken the risk of working for themselves and made it into the top five percent. They also pay the majority of taxes.
Most of the socialists i have met are too lazy to open their own business, preferring to work as little as possible, while coming up with rationalizations why hard working people are somehow exploiting them.
I don't think too many bars reliably generate more than $167,000 per year in profit. Average earnings for someone with a Doctorate is a shade under $100k and with Professional qualifications $100k.
You seem to have little grasp of the reality of what the top 5% consist of.
Hard working small business owners are unlikely to be able to break into the 5% bracket. A successful entrepeneur has a shot at it but that kind of success has a corresponding risk of failure.
As an aside, one of the tragedies of the stagnant median wages is that it has sapped the ability of most Americans to build up capital and hence perhaps start their own businesses. The thin cushion also means that there is less time for a business to take of and hence a correspondingly higher chance of failure.
I know many small business owners who after thirty years of work are comfortably in the top five percent when investment income.is also included.
Most small businessmen I know make.more than a.Ph.D. This is the problem with many college educated. They dont realize that most of these small business owners dont have a college degree, yey they make.more money.
A mechanic that makes.40,000 per year can open up a shop, work twice as hard, and then make 80,000 per year. If he.does good honest work he will eventually have to hire another couple of mechanics and he is then easily in the six.figure income range. A successful gunsmith i know on midland street in fort smith makes over 100,000 a year and he has a high school diploma. He employs three other gunsmiths.
Many of the college educated have no idea.who is making the real money. It aint the boys with an easy degree in an impractical subject. I have stayed in touch with my working class roots and.working class.people. i dont think it is.beneath my dignity to associate with the " uneducated' even though i am well within the top five.percent but came from a lower middle class background
Yes, you can make good money as a plumber, car mechanic electrician etc. however your average car mechanic would need to pull over 13 hour shifts 6 days per week to pull in $80k. This is still merely half the amount needed to break into the top 5%. Yes, a good businessman in any area of business will with hard work, skill and a bit of luck do well for him or herself.
Anyway, this arguing about income levels is somewhat beside the point. I believe you would object about paying any tax whether we were talking of a pauper's income or a king's?
I work, get a good wage and pay my taxes. I have not claimed a single hour's worth of unemployment benefit in my life. I am pissed off at how much money gets diverted by special interests and pork but I am still willing to pay my taxes. Why do you think that might be the case?
It isn't the $200K per year folks who contribute via honest labor and creativity who need to be taxed further, it's the $20 million a year folks whose income is derivied from gaming the system via bailouts, subsidies, and other gov't sponsored theft who need to be eliminated, taxation is too good for 'em.
Jump! You Bankster Fuckers!
You are exploiting me by consuming oxygen that I need. Parasite.
prob with a fed sales tax, or GST or what ever isthey dont remove income taxes, and they eventually crank up the GST anyhow.
keep your eyes on australias budget, i wouldnt be suprised if they crasnk up the GST a few points.
Same old tired Bullshit. 47% don't pay taxes except, social security , medicare, state sales tax, property tax for many, and usually income tax but it doesn't stop there.
The under 47K crowd pays direct taxes to corporations. Lets start with insurance:
1. Car Insurance
2. Home or Renter's insurance
3. Health Insurance
4. Life insurance
5. (for some) disability insurance
Then we go to the direct tax to the finance companies so they can pay their insurance bills
6. Credit Card fees
7. Major Household Repair financing costs
8. Uncovered medical bill financing costs
9. Second Mortgage financing costs
10. Claims the insurance companies refuse to pay because under ZIRP they can't make money on their float or at least to pay the C-Suite salaries they are accustomed too.
Lets head over to handing the rich welfare money.
11 The pay inflated costs for food and other commodities so the wealthy wives get 220 million dollar 0% loans to ya know do whatever with.
12. Here's the ultimate hand-out: The rich buy policy to outsource all those people's jobs without penalty like duty and tariffs on the imported work product , pass none of the savings on and th4en get crazy when those AMERICANS HAVE TO GET HELP FROM THE GOVT.
13. The rest take wage cuts as a result of H1B abuse, illegal immigrants and threats of outsourcing while those who produced things are completely out of work as their factories are gone.
The rich don't feel 20% of their income in federal taxes seeing as how they get most of their income from the govt. if not directly, then through it's sweetheart policies on trade and taxes. Don't act outraged to me. Hang your fucking head in shame YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE
The view expressed by you is a typical view of people in the bottom 47 percent who are looking for rationalizations to force other people to give you their money.
Open your own business. Asshole. If you were a business owner you wouldnt talk like that, and dont make up some story about you being a business owner who employs people now that you have been called out for what you are.
In greece and other places where setting up an official, legal business just makes you a sucker to be exploited by the tax man, then it is understandable why productive people either work in the underground economy or go a little bit Galt.
If our top twenty percent lose their work ethic and.others see it is virtually impossible to get in the top twenty percent by the fruits of their own honest labor, then we go Greece. Virtually everyone is a little bit Galt over there, rich and poor alike.
This is the ultimate result of socialism.
Would that Socialism you mentioned be Corporate Socialism?
So sorry to hear that you haven't been told. Our top twenty percent never really had much of a work ethic and the people who did have been replaced by Chinese; so we've been Greek'd since about '73.
You're not 'Galt', you're a 'looter' with a comical superiority complex.
Unreal. The rich get richer every day and all this moron complains about is the poor not paying their share. With 47 million Americans on food stamps maybe there is a reason so many don't pay "income tax" (but still pay lots of other taxes) - low income!
A man puts a gun to your head and takes your wallet. He is a mugger.
A million men put a gun to your head and take your earnings. They openly flaunt the law. They are fucking heroes, do gooders and economics Phd geniuses!
Land of the thief and home of the slave.
That the proportion of households not paying income tax has risen over the last 5 years is the greatest non-shocker ever. I mean, with the number of people on this blog calling this crisis the economic end times any outrage over this statistic should be muted.
Unemployment is high, median wages have been stagnant for decades etc. The slew in the tax base is just a symptom in the increasingly slewed income distribution in the US.
The situation is untenable in part due to the fact that for many americans no government support means forgoing meals. This is a sad statement when considering that it is about one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
The issue is that demand is at rock bottom since money is tight for everyone. Low demand leads to low business confidence and hence low investment and job creation;companies are sitting on record cash piles which they are not investing, all the people buying gold at record prices are also doing the economy a world of good by dumping the resources and speculating on a non-productive asset (no matter whether it is a good bet right now or not). Basically: no prospect of future demand => no investment => no new jobs => no new wage earners => no prospect of rising demand anytime soon.
On top of all this the money taken from people who actually pay taxes is being channeled to favored "private" interests like the finance industry, the healthcare and insurance lobby or the Military industrial complex (not to mention the continuing security bonanza). All this does is channel money from people who might actually spend it on something useful into the pockets of people who will park it into banks, financial assets or commodities.
Everything is correct!
It truly is not difficult ...
70% of economy is consumption
kill the middle class --> kill consumtion --> kill economy --> bye bye USA
prices go up, wages go down, money is extracted from real economy into 'financial' (Monopoly Game) one, algos take over, jobs move abroad, quality of life decreases, .....
Am I missing something here?!?!
and BTW .. S&P cut USA rating!!
There you go!!
as I said: trickle-down-wealth-effect my a$$
Everything is correct!
It truly is not difficult ...
70% of economy is consumption
kill the middle class --> kill consumtion --> kill economy --> bye bye USA
prices go up, wages go down, money is extracted from real economy into 'financial' (Monopoly Game) one, algos take over, jobs move abroad, quality of life decreases, .....
Am I missing something here?!?!
and BTW .. S&P cut USA rating!!
There you go!!
as I said: trickle-down-wealth-effect my a$$
+1, particularly the last paragraph:
On top of all this the money taken from people who actually pay taxes is being channeled to favored "private" interests like the finance industry, the healthcare and insurance lobby or the Military industrial complex (not to mention the continuing security bonanza). All this does is channel money from people who might actually spend it on something useful into the pockets of people who will park it into banks, financial assets or commodities.
What planet does this asshole live on? What a clueless imbecile! Gee, could it be, might it be that 17% unemployed or underemployed! Our own BLS bullshit records keeping states that many, rates calculated under the Carter statistics it would be 22%! So douche bag, we are not as stupid as you think we are, go somewhere else and peddle your bullshit lies!
um, cloward piven anyone?
This asshole must be hate working people Bruce Krastings best friend? Do you think Bruce sent him here to continue the beat down of working people? Why do these 1% hate us so much they would have us live poverty? To Bruce and this dumb-ass we should never have hope of a living wage with health care? Why are they turning us into Mexico? Oh, they get to keep even more money and power, could that be it? I have noticed the 1% have their little minions plugging pre-packaged bullshit lies like this into many websites. You can tell it's them, they start out by trying to make you think they consider you one of THEM and then undermine everything our country stands for. OUR country wasn't bathed in blood by the 1%! Working people built this country and the 1% are trying to steal it from us one purchased con-gress, banker bail-out at a time. Fight these pricks everyday, shop small, spend money on small business, do business with your friends and neighbors. Small business will save us from these pricks like Bruce and his friends!
Deductions bitcheeeez!
- Mandatory unpaid military service
- Make cap gains and hedge manager compensation identical to other types of income
- Shift individual income tax burden onto corporations
Libertarian bulls**t. Another Randian assh*le.
I'm a security guard. I make 26,000 per year. I am in the 80% tax bracket, counting the immigrant and import taxes.
How many immigrants compete for your job? How many imports displace your job?
I would love a tax cut to only 50%.
And when the dollar drops to the point where the immigrants can't send home remittances and stop coming, and where we export as much as we import, I will be in the 50% tax bracket.
Speed the day.
I'd love to know how you're getting to 80% tax.
Do the World a favor and turn off the TV.
Taxes are the price we pay to avoid prison....
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy..." ~~ paraphrased from Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian.
This; despite a regressive income tax wherein Warren Buffet pays less percent tax on his total income than his secretary.
The problem of unequal taxation exemplifies the problem of unequal income. Income gains now come only from having one's hooks in the financial economy. Laborers do not participate.
The banksters have set up a system of elite and proletariat, where the proles have their needs served by federal spending and the elite protect their income and wealth from taxation, leaving the shrinking class of skilled workers and professionals to carry the increasingly heavier load on their shoulders.
The bottom line is that this is a system set up by the politician class, sometimes partners and sometimes tools of the financial elite class. The 47% of the population didn't create this system, they are worse off than if they were active participants, paying income tax and being aware of their wage/welfare slavery.
We can't manage much longer, and frankly I'm trying to figure out where my niche will be in 15 or 20 years, and where my daughter will find her niche. Converting my income into a stockpile of precious metals is tempting, but suppose private holding of gold is illegal a decade from now.
Back in 2005 I didn't see how soon the endgame was coming. I sincerely regret not going with my wife on a 'vacation' in her last trimester, engaging in birthright tourism, making my daughter a dual citizen of perhaps Canada, Sweden, or some other economy not (yet) fully captured by the elite and turned into a warmongering banana republic.
Where is the author getting these statistics?
Someone making $41k pays about $4100 Federal, $3200 SS&Medicare, $1700 State and can subtract the $2200 they pay for Medical & dental insurance from gross income. They can't afford to buy a house or have kids.
@Brad Schaeffer. I'm not sure how much of an economist you are, but in academic circles, taxation on income is widely agreed as a terrible idea. Taxing anything causes the supply to reduce. The right wing concentrates on the higher end of the income tax spectrum, saying it crushes entrepreneurs, etc. More insidiously though, high marginal tax rates at the low end of the spectrum cause people to withdraw from the labour market altogether, which then results in zero income tax anyway. My wife is an example. She doesn't make a lot of money - her gross income would just cover childcare. Add in income tax, and she'd have to pay every month to work. Viola, the economy loses a worker, how can this possibly be constructive? Tax things you don't want people to do, like smoke, drink, use lots of gasoline, and tax things that have a fixed supply that cannot be withdrawn, prime example is land. Making low pay subject to taxation is counter-productive, and complaining when people don't pay income tax is spiteful.