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Originally Posted by BustedS13
the top 25% control almost 90% of the wealth in this country. yeah, they totally shouldn't pay more than the other 75%, you're right. America is so abusive to the cartoonishly wealthy.
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So who should control it? You?
You don't even know what wealth is.
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just to be clear, you place your empathy with Scrooge McDuck instead of Launchpad McQuack, am I getting this right?DO THIS?
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Scrooge makes me money, Launchpad doesn't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by orion::S14
I guess that's the point - They (the "rich") do pay more, WAY more.
As a percentage, not just dollars.
They pay enough (in dollars) that 4 out of 10 people DO NOT HAVE TO PAY TAXES AT ALL.
...
Here's a realistic scenario:
"Guy A" makes $60,000/year...and pays a nominal tax rate of 12% (after the standard deduction, child tax credits, etc...).
"Guy B" makes $300,000 year...and pays a nominal tax rate of 30% (after deductions, exploited loopholes, etc...)
As an individual, the rich guy is paying $90,000/year in taxes...and the middle class guy pays $7,200.
So the rich guy pays 11 times as much in taxes compared to the middle class guy.
5 times the income, but ELEVEN times as much in taxes?
How is that not "paying his fair share"...???
Rich guy pays 2.5 times the taxes as a percentage, and $82,800 more in dollars. Yeah, he should pay MORE. He's clearly got it easy. 
EDIT: And that example covers 97% of all taxpayers. Only ~3% made more than $250,000 last year.
- Brian |
The whole stink about "fair share" comes from the idea that wealth is fixed, that economics is a Zero-sum game where if you win, someone has to lose. It's a pie that doesn't expand, so if you get more pie than someone else, it's because you took more than your "fair share". "Tax the rich" stems from this idea that since you took more than your fair share of the pie, you should pay increasingly more taxes as you get more of the pie. It's only fair.
Whether Bill Gates gets taxed at 35% or 50%, what does it matter to any individual? It's not like it goes directly into your bank account. By the time you see it, your "share" is probably a fraction of a road reflector.