Mon 15 Nov 2010
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100…
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this…
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7..
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do..
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20”. Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.
And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.
“I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,”but he got $10!”
“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!”
“That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn’t get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
November 16th, 2010 at 5:05 am
Robin,
The logical missteps here (and in much of conservative talk about taxation) are (1) the assumption that the wealth of all men are mutually independent, (2) the assumption that both poor and rich mean make equal use of public resources, (3) the assumption that by paying low taxes the poor men are the only one getting a good deal. None of this, of course, is true.
1. The rich men have become rich in part because they have talent, but also because they had access to the poor men’s labor and the middle class’ purchasing power. Likewise the poor men and middle class are poorer than the rich men because the latter tightly control their market value with economic and political means, as a mean to increase profits on their activities.
2. The rich men, by definition, make more use of public resources. Their activities require more land, more energy, more natural resources, more public infrastructure. They monopolize more government workers, require more military resources, and generate more environmental damages and so forth.
3. The poor men don’t pay taxes because they are dirt poor. All of their disposable income go towards getting a roof and feeding their family an dealing with the stress of being poor. Were they to pay more paxes they would become a burden for society which would be good for no one.
The taxation system that you are ranting against is used widely throughout the world and is built to mitigate the negative effect of factors 1, 2 and 3 on society. It has been the source of political and economic stability for decades, and has allowed the poor to survive, the middle class to thrive, and the rich to get richer.
So my point is be really careful about what you wish for because you might get it.
November 16th, 2010 at 5:06 am
You forgot to mention the 11th guy. He’s underage and not legally in the bar… he also pays nothing for his beer, but that is tacked on to the bill.
November 16th, 2010 at 5:07 am
Now compare it logically.
Compare the TAX each pays based on a percentage of their INCOME.
Suddenly I don’t feel so bad for the “rich” guy.
Also consider RICH people by and large are business people. meaning they pay ZERO taxes. Sure they file an income tax return and the IRS gets taxes but they just increase the price of their products OR cut the costs to pass those taxes onto guess who?
the 4 poor guys apparently paying nothing for their beers.
The average under $50,000 a year income person pays SIGNIFICANT LARGER a percentage of their total income to ALL TAXATION than the rich guy paying $59 for beer does.
The Lowest income bracket ends up SPENDING most of their income (living paycheck to paycheck so to speak) so they pay damned near 100% of their excess income to “taxes”
I pay over 55-60% of my income to taxes (including sales taxe head (illegal I might add) taxes property and school taxes.
hell they take over 30% right out of my paycheck. (and NO you don’t get that back no matter how little you make they split your federal taxes into 3 pieces and only ONE of those pieces is part of any refund)
so add into your equation how much each of those people 1-10 pay of their TOTAL INCOME in taxes (all taxes) and suddenly the picture is very very different indeed.
the issue overall is too much taxes (period not on rich or poor)
our government is bleeding us DRY.
November 16th, 2010 at 5:12 am
This example is fairly wrong in several ways. The reason that the rich guy pays more in taxes is because he gets far more benefit out of his tax dollars. If you run a business you are getting extensive benefits from: a legal system to back up contracts; police and fire and military protection for your building; a reliable system of unemployment insurance for your employees so you can lay them off more flippantly; public roads to ship your goods; all manner of industry specific tax breaks, tarif protection, subsidies, etc; and on and on… If you are the guy sweeping that business’s floor for minimum wage (even with your kid on free school lunch and your wife on government cheese), you are not even coming close in terms of bang for your government buck. To fix the analogy, the richer guys need to get A LOT MORE BEER than the poor guys. In fact, the riches guy get fine wine and coctails, the poorest gets half a mug of warm O’doul’s.
November 16th, 2010 at 5:12 am
This is the most rediculously non-congruent argument I’ve ever seen. Not a single bit is relevant to our tax system. Why dont you explore a relevant situation such as, if the bill costs $100 and the 10 buddies are only paying $60 (because that is what is going on at the current moment). Lets not forget that buddy number ten makes $20 million per year and through generous tax shelters and tax cuts, pays the same in federal taxes as the man making $250,000 per year. This “story” belongs on Glenn Becks chalkboard along with all the other BS.
November 16th, 2010 at 5:13 am
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Willie Half-Nelson, Krishna. Krishna said: It's explained in terms of beer! https://www.fortunewatch.com/the-obama-tax-system-explained-in-beer/ […]
November 16th, 2010 at 5:17 am
The tax system is totally screwy, there are so many loopholes, caveats and who knows what else buried in the thousands of pages of tax code to really be able to boil it down to an analogy about buying beer in a bar. I mean it could of been happy hour, drink specials, imported beer night, or free beer with burger special night. We’ve all seen the famous “Warren Buffet pays the same tax rate as his secretary analogy” and the argument in this essay only refers to % points, not actual dollars.
I don’t have a solution, but I know the tax code clearly favors the rich, and if it doesn’t then you must have a bad accountant or are truly a dick. But I take solace in the fact that money (over a certain amount) doesn’t buy happiness and that we are mostly talking about rearranging deck chairs on the titanic unless we get up and do something seriously productive here in the USA soon.
So I’ve got to go back to work, and buy only American made products, and not watch TV, and get my tea filter out to block the next two years of “Tea Party” ridiculousness. But mostly I should just stop having a few beers before posting comments about things……..
November 16th, 2010 at 5:18 am
RE: Vincent
Although you see it as ranting about the tax system, I see it as ranting against those who have a problem with the “wealthy” getting the majority of tax cuts. I believe the author made the comment that all 10 men were happy with the arrangement, the problem occurred when a reduction in the bill was brought forward. Personally, I don’t have a problem with those that paid more in getting more out when a break comes along. While I disagree with the levels that everyone in our nation is now taxed, I don’t have a problem with author’s rant here.
November 16th, 2010 at 5:26 am
Vincent,
Well put. Thanks for putting that into perspective. Without a proper response to your points, the original “article” is both old and pure snark.
JT
November 16th, 2010 at 5:40 am
The first five guys drank their beer from thimbles.
The sixth guy drank his beer from a shot glass.
The seventh guy drank his beer from a high ball glass.
The eighth guy drank his beer from a pint glass.
The ninth guy drank his beer from a two liter stein.
The tenth guy drank his beer from a swimming pool.
November 16th, 2010 at 5:46 am
Obama has yet to pass a tax bill. The taxes you’re referring to are the ones we paid under Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.
Cute story though.
November 16th, 2010 at 5:47 am
The biggest fallacy with this whole story is that the beer they receive has no relationship to their ability to pay. The richest 5% pay about 35-40% of the taxes, but they OWN more than 80% of the wealth!!! It sounds SO unfair when you say that 5% pay 35% of the tax total, but the story completely flips when you understand that they own 4/5 of the nation’s privately held assets. Helf the story does not tell the whole truth.
November 16th, 2010 at 5:49 am
If we were going to discuss our tax system in terms of beer, the bar tab for the ten men would be $150; but they would only pay $100, and they would borrow the other fifty to settle up. They would do this every day for fifty years, until they finally owed so much on the beer loans they had taken out that there would be no hope of them paying it back – but luckily they would live in a system where the debt could be passed along to their grandkids. So drink up, everybody!
November 16th, 2010 at 5:52 am
And so one night the 10th guy just didn’t show up.
“I wonder where 10 is?” asked the other nine drinking fellows.
“Haven’t you seen the papers?” asked the bar owner.
As they read in horror, the 9 realized that 10, despite being rich and smart, had chosen poorly. He left and went to another bar. It was a nice enough bar when 10 got there. He only paid for his own drinks. There were fewer rules about how many drinks he could have and of what type. 10 was happy.
Until the takeover. 10’s new hangout got new ownership. And they took all of 10’s money and locked him in a back room to die.
So you see my wealthy friends, you had best carefully consider where besides the United States you will take your wealth. I’m sure there are many countries that look perfectly safe for ex-pat Americans to gather. Today …
November 16th, 2010 at 5:54 am
Wait, back up to the first set of numbers… does this mean middle class income tax is around 3% and 7%??? Well that’s great news for me!
November 16th, 2010 at 5:59 am
I think by stating that the bill is always $100 misses a big point. They all start off having the same number of beers but eventually three of the first four poor men start to rely on the others to pay their tab. So they continue to drink more and more than the others. The tab goes up and up and costs the others more money each time. The men paying control their drinking and may even cut back to save money. They even try to help out the poor men by suggesting AA or trying to help them get a job. These three poor men turn it down or put forth a lack-luster attempt. Why? They don’t need it, their tab is paid or they do have a job but don’t tell the others so they aren’t charged with paying a portion of the tab. The first three don’t take responsibility and thus the fourth poor man who is really trying is given the same upset glares from the six men paying the tab.
In the end, it all comes down to being responsible and respectful. If someone else is paying your tab, then you should be responsible and respect them by not running up the bill. If you are paying the tab be responsible and respect those men who are trying. The ones taking advantage of you should get kicked out of the group, which lowers the tab and builds a more cohesive and united group.
November 16th, 2010 at 6:06 am
So as long as we’re reducing to absurdity, and 100 dollars is the total amount of income taxes collected (actually about 1 trillion). The total networth of the united states households is 4900 dollars. Guys 1-3 have either owe mony or have less than a dollar, guys 4-7 have 650 bucks to spare between them and guys 8 and 9 have about 900 dollars between them and guy 10 is sitting pretty at about 3400.
Here is where I would make a rebuttal of your original point if it wasn’t the oldest chain-letter on the internet reproduced verbatim without any critical thought on your part.
November 16th, 2010 at 6:07 am
The richest guy would only pay about $30 for his beer.
Assuming he was bad enough at math to take all of his compensation as income.
November 16th, 2010 at 6:13 am
I think the writer of this piece drank too many beers, then woke up, vomited, and then put his hand in the vomit, and smeared it all over the computer screen, and said, “this looks like a blogpost about economics, a subject which I have never studied, and have no business writing about, but it’s the topic du jour, and I will get hits to my crappy blog if I just shit something out. But I don’t have shit, I have vomit, but the teabaggers who read this stuff won’t know the difference. Win!”
November 16th, 2010 at 8:37 am
[…] was funny, it’s amazing what kind of analogies people can come up with. https://www.fortunewatch.com/the-obama-tax-system-explained-in-beer/ See this Amp at […]
November 16th, 2010 at 8:57 am
For all those that do not seem to understand, this story not theoretical, but is based on the actual amount of federal income tax collected by the US Government. The US Government currently collects 59% of its tax revenue from the top 10% of US taxpayers, 18% of its tax revenue from those in the 10-20 percentile, etc. Over 40% of US ‘taxpayers’ pay no federal tax at all.
This is after all tax breaks, tax shelters, etc. Now, it is fair to say that the top 10% also make a lot more than 10% of the money, but it is certainly less than the 59% of the federal taxes that they pay.
It is also fair to say there are many other ways taxes are collected, with some being more regressive, and some being less progressive.
November 16th, 2010 at 9:10 am
[…] the hypothetical HERE. Posted in Feature, Politics « Accessibility is Key. Check Your E-Mail! You can leave […]
November 16th, 2010 at 10:42 am
if that was an accurate analogy, it would be quite obvious that rich guys
where picking up the tab for everyone else. this is far from the truth,
the whole design of the tax system is created by the rich, they did not
design a system that drains their funds, and funnels that money into
the pockets of the poor (then it would be impossible to stay poor).
a country needs to pay its bills, if tax cuts create large amounts of
wealth for the government, which is said over and over, there would be no
deficit in the US.
~
November 16th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Look at our record over the past 100 some years and it will help you understand what is going wrong now. In that time, we ran huge deficits three times… two great wars and the Great Depression. Each time we paid off in full over a reasonable time those balances… how did we do it? The tax rate on the Rich was 70% or higher, why? Because the rich made money on the wars and the bad economy. They owed us for their prosperity.
November 16th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Trevor. YOUR not understanding. the guy paying $59 is not paying $59.
Persons 1-5 are paying the $59 as guy $10 raises the prices on his products so he can GET the $59 beer and guess who pays the higher prices?
1-5 (you get the idea)
The top 10% if they have half a brain DO NOT PAY TAXES.
YOU PAY THEM FOR THEM.
this is what your not understanding. You see the people at the top PASS THE TAXES DOWN TO YOU. thats how they own 80% of everything.
Who do YOU pass it down to? there is no one “left” below us. so WE pay it all.
why do you think interest rates on mortgages are 85 to 140% (do the math on what the ACTUAL interest rate is on a 6% APR) get ready for a shocker.
November 16th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Great analogy, except that the guy saving ten dollars actually drank a team pitcher while the rest had shot glasses.
Nice try though.
November 16th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
The 10th guy should be buying the drinks, he’s rich! What skin is it off of his back to buy some drinks for people? After the beers he still gets to drive his luxury car home to his mansion and have sex with his hot wife while the other nine guys have to go back to their crappy lives.
November 16th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Seems like they already “drink their beer” overseas. They make a lot of their money by hiring cheap foreign labor, they set up their corporations in such a way as to avoid paying taxes here in America. But let’s weep for the poor rich people. Why, without another tax cut, they won’t be able to afford their second gold-covered Hummer, or another spare yacht! Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the poor oppressed rich people?
November 16th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Whats the matter? Wont approve my post because you are to scared to let everyone here know where the origin of your story came from?
November 16th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
I think most people are missing the point of this parable. It isn’t that the poor have it to good or the rich have it too rough; it’s that the rich and poor are both part of an interdependent system, and soaking the rich as a form of punishment instead of simple revenue collection is shooting ourselves in the foot. Even when they had enough to cover the tab, the first nine people were angry that the tenth still had more than them left over, which is just simple envy any way you slice it.
November 17th, 2010 at 1:34 am
Nerys (#28) – Sorry you are incorrect. These statistics come directly from the federal government. Anyone can objectively look them up. The percentages represent only federal, personal income tax. There are many other ways people can be taxed, and some are more regressive, and will tend to hit poor people harder.
There is a strong misconception that the rich do not pay taxes. This is not true, and the rich do pay most of the taxes when looking at the dollar amount they pay, even after taking into account their tax shelters, and other ways the rich have to avoid taxes. The rich have so much money that even though they pay a lot, it does not have any effect on their lifestyles. The poor and middle class have a lot less money. An arguement could be made that taxes are more of burden on the middle class if you look at how the tax burden can and does effect their lifestyle and amount of disposable income.
Reasonable people can argue and will disagree over what should be someones ‘fair share’ of taxes, and that the rich should or should not be paying more. The arguement that the rich as a group don’t pay taxes is demonstrably false. The total dollar amount paid is far higher, and this information is easy for anyone to look up and verify.
November 17th, 2010 at 5:40 am
This is just lazy and weak.
By using “beer” instead of something everyone needs (like food, water, shelter, etc) it makes it easy to overlook that at least a few of these cats (statistically speaking) are either incapable of affording a beer (sick, mentally ill, handicapped, etc), or have been laid off by the dudes at the upper end of the specturm.
Also, the idea that they will take their business elswehere is bass ackwards. What’s happened in the US is the top two earners took their business elsewhere and *then* started complaining about the poor guys at the other end. Jobs have been sent overseas not because of an unfair tax burden, but because it’s cheaper to pay brown-skinned people in other countries a fraction of what Americans would earn for the same work.
November 17th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Chris Taylor:
your quote “Also consider RICH people by and large are business people. meaning they pay ZERO taxes.” is factually incorrect. Rich people do pay taxes. The top 10% contribute to 60% of the federal tax revenue. Again, a well documented fact. Lets also consider your “business people” assumption. You are probably correct. Where do you think jobs come from….rich business people of course. Bill gates is extremely wealthy but founded a company that now employs nearly 90,000 people. So, Bill pays taxes directly via income and capital gains tax, and indirectly via corporate income tax, employer contributed social security tax and income tax from his 90k employees.
November 17th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Dessy – That’s precisely what’s happening. The 10th guy paid for 60% of the tab while 4 guys paid nothing. Should number 10 pay all of the taxes while the rest of us pay none?
December 11th, 2010 at 8:36 am
The story should include description of the trickle down theory: the rich guy drinks all the beer, then the others are charged for glasses of his piss.
December 14th, 2010 at 5:54 am
The difference is really none at all. Both the rich and the poor came into this world without a penny and both will leave the same way! What if we all gave 10% to the government and 10% to God and kept 80% for ourselves. Both the government and the church would have enough to take care of the poor and the working folks would have plenty as well!
March 4th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
The current distribution of wealth in the US in beer is shown below (use the google, do your own research).
10 guys, 10 beers.
1 and 2 get 8.6 beers, 8-10 each get .2 beers.
The rich have most of the money… of course they currently pay most of the taxes.
Bring back the middle class and the tax distribution will change.
March 4th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
oops… 8-10 get .175 beers, not .2.
March 5th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Love it! As a business owner it is so annoying to have more taxes to have to pay. It means less benefits for my employees and if it keeps up then less employees.
Just remember that every job that anyone has is provided by a “rich” person which is usually the business owner or the investors that funded the business. To raise their taxes is to decrease the amount of money they have to create more jobs, give more benefits, give raises, and stay in business.
April 15th, 2011 at 2:20 am
To me, the point of the story is not all the tax details and who owns what or benefits from what. Dollars are dollars. If everyone attacks the rich guy and he leaves, his dollars leave too. That’s the point.
April 18th, 2011 at 7:37 am
You’re missing part of the story. You see, because they were drinking buddies the rich man wanted to help the poor men. So he decided to give them some advice on finances. “You have to learn how to leverage your money! Look at me. I’ve cornered the widget business, I can charge anything I want for widgets!”
But 3 of the 4 poor men were working in the rich man’s factories for minimum wage, and they answered “But we have no money to leverage. We spend all of our money on food!”
“That’s your problem then,” concluded the rich man “I only spend 1% of my income on food.”
April 21st, 2011 at 10:38 am
@MessengerBoy
Where is he leaving to? The only reason the rich guy has all his wealth is because of the government that allows him to maintain it via the various infrastructure in place, including a legal system and means of enforcing it.
The rich disproportionately benefit from the government.
In contrast to the chain mail post above, I’m going to post another chain mail type of story.
“A plate with a dozen cookies arrives. Before anyone else can make a move, the CEO reaches out to rake in eleven of the cookies. When the other two look at him in surprise, the CEO locks eyes with the tea party member. “You better watch him,” the executive says with a nod toward the union worker. “He wants a piece of your cookie.””
You may think it’s unfair that the rich pay X% of the taxes. Until you realize they control 4X% of the wealth. And while some people are still naive enough to believe in trickle down economics, though it hasn’t worked AT ALL since Reagan introduced them (and mind you, the tax rate was far higher under Reagan than it is now), what incentive is there to put your money at risk or work if taxes are low? With no estate tax, no real taxes on rich people (or corporations: GE made 11.2 billion dollars profit or some such number and paid 0% taxes last year) there is zero incentive to work or do more with it.
It’s a baseless claim that taxes disincentive work. It is quite the opposite. A person will work harder when the return on their work is taxed higher. Greed runs the US and that is the impetus behind tax cuts, because it makes it easier to actualize greed. But greed won’t go away just because taxes are higher. It’ll just make people work harder to continue accumulating wealth. Wealth mind you, that they’ve made by ripping off the poor and the middle class.
If you read a few books about investment banking, especially in the 1980’s (Liar’s Poker is an excellent memoir on the matter), you’ll notice just how little actual work is done and how little utility is provided by those stockpiling wealth.
July 14th, 2011 at 9:49 am
Poor- another word for lazy – welfare class – Rich – those who work their asses off to actually have something and then have to lie and cheat (on income taxes) to keep from giving it to the “lazy welfare class.” I’m sick of the whining and bellyaching people! My parents both came from “poor” families. There were lots of kids, illegal activites and very little real “work.” But they dug themselves out of it and have worked hard to actually have something – and they are accused of being “rich.” My dad can’t keep employees at his business and my mom can’t keep servers in her restaurant because no one wants to DO anything…except whine. THEY are the recipients of those tax cuts for the “wealthy.” Those sorry a_ _ , lazy low lifes who work long enough to buy a case of beer and collect unemployment are the so called “poor.” Give me a break! It’s a simple equation – REAL work = money! NO MOTIVATION = poor house!
July 14th, 2011 at 8:51 pm
and by the way DKJ, 1 and 2 are paying for their own beer, the beers of 8, 9 and 10 (and still making other charitable donations so they can at least choose who gets some of their money) while 3, 4, 5, and 6 are buying their own beer – contributing to the purchase of beer for the street drunks and receiving NO recipriocol benefits whatsoever.
August 16th, 2011 at 5:01 am
Some of these comments aren’t exactly accurate. I’m guessing the authors of them weren’t part of the top 5%?
My parents were also dirt-poor and had to support their entire family in a small apartment in Canada. They’ve worked and taken risks with investments in businesses, constantly aware of the dynamic economy. It’s sad to see people rant about their situation without explaining what they have done to change it.
They’ve come a long long way through hard work and-rather than spend on themselves-they choose to make donations to charity. I know for a fact that we contribute more than $25,000/year. So please don’t insult them for their hard-earned situation in life.
If you really want to make a difference, change your situation yourself.
September 21st, 2011 at 1:51 am
The rich guy is a co-owner of the bar and writes off his beer expense as a business exspence, so he actually drank for free.
lol
September 26th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
This is nuts! I don’t claim to be a finance person but I do have personal experience. When I met my husband I was in debt. We both worked to pay the rent. We started saving for our future right away instead of expecting the government to take care of use when we were old. We drove old cars, we ate potatoes for dinner(no pizza or movies), and my husband worked 12+ hours a day. We bought no fancy cars, rims, no cable TV, no stereo systems! We scrimped and saved in order to invest in a new company. Now after unlimited hours, the company has grown to employ over 2500 workers in at least six states at very fair wages and compensation packages. The workers quit their jobs to keep their section 8 housing or ask for pay advances to pay for car accessories. What? I still shop the clearance racks but am able to pay for a nice car now and help pay for our daughter’s college with two more to go. Why don’t I deserve something nice after all the hard work and doing without when the lower class does not take personal responsibility and now expects me to give them what I have. Why did we work so hard if we can’t keep it? Maybe we should start over and spend all the money we made and not have created jobs or paid taxes to help the lower class? I am not selfish but I do believe that hard work should pay off. Even if you work fast food, hard work and a good attitude can pay off. I have seen it with a seventeen year old just out of high school.
September 29th, 2011 at 12:17 am
Looking at the amount of the tax in dollars and not in percentages is wrong. It is what helps fuel class warfare.
DO AWAY WITH TAXING INCOME!
Tax spending instead.
DO NOT tax both income and spending.
Part of the problem is in the definition of what is taxable income.
Scrap the byzantine tax code and replace it with a tax on spending. Everybody would pay the same “PERCENTAGE”. The rich, having more money, would be buying more things and more expensive things. They will be contributing more money.
October 5th, 2011 at 9:35 am
Well I have told my wife many times 2 people don’t pay taxes big business and poor people. If you raise taxes close loopholes on big business. See Debit card fee from BoA. They just raise fee’s prices so that the consumers (middle america)pay the taxes.
October 9th, 2011 at 10:55 am
DenIron this is not correct
the correct way to look at taxes is HOW MUCH do you pay as a “percentage” of your total income.
When I made less than $30k a year I paid over 60% of my income to direct taxation. not even counting indirect taxation.
SO those “poor” people may not be paying much in “total” tax dollars each but THEY ARE in fact paying (typically) over 50% of their total income in direct taxation.
What percentage of income is the rich people paying?
when you look at it as a percentage of ones income suddenly the tax environment looks VERY VERY different.
unless your homeless living on the street OR Living under someone elses roof for free you pay an extraordinary amount of your income to taxes even if you don’t realize it.