BartSimpson BartSimpson:
And this...
$1:
The top-earning 5 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $159,619), however, still paid far more than the bottom 95 percent. The top 5 percent earned 34.7 percent of the nation's adjusted gross income, but paid approximately 58.7 percent of federal individual income taxes.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.htmlIf we eliminate the rich, who's going to pay for all of the crap the liberals dream about? Hmmm?
No one said anything about eliminating the rich.
And congrazt on your 7 figure net worth and your debt free status, but clearly at that stage you are not "rich" as maybe a seven figure net worth might have been in the 60's or 70's. It’s not like you could just stop working and somehow live comfortably on the interest unless you have 5 or 6 of those millions.
SAVING VS SPENDING:
In the last post you said
$1:
It's not the fault of the 'rich' that most people these days have no fiscal restraint and are unable to delay their gratification. And stripping the 'rich' of their assets will do f*ck all to improve the situation of the poor.
The real issue is people NOT SPENDING. I mean great, save your money and build your wealth and we’ll all throw you a big party because you got a million dollars banked. But the economy exists on a circular system of earning, spending, taxing, earning, spending, taxing etc...
Now if a huge chunk of people are earning around $40K per year then how much of that $40 K can they actually spend? After taxes and after buying life’s necessities there isn’t going to be a whole bunch left over.
Now if you lower the taxes for that huge group by 5% you have 80% of the population with a nice big chunk of money which they may spend or invest or whatever. You’re going to have millions and millions and millions with extra cash (in 2008 the US tax on those earning $32-78K (single) was 25% so if you earned $40K you have $10k in taxes – lower that by 5% and you have 20% taxes on 40K which is $8000 which is $2000 more in pocket)(of course this is simplified I’ve not even had a coffee this AM yet so relax).
$1:
The top-earning 5 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $159,619), however, still paid far more than the bottom 95 percent. The top 5 percent earned 34.7 percent of the nation's adjusted gross income, but paid approximately 58.7 percent of federal individual income taxes.
Now adjust this summary to make the math a little easier and find the point where the top X percent pay 50% of the federal income taxes (as per your quote) (assume that gets us to the top 4% so X =4 with an assumed minimum AGI of $200,000) and tax them an additional 5%.
The tax rate for this group in 2008 was 33%. If Bart made $300,000 that year he pays $99,000 in taxes. If the tax rate were increased 5% to 38% to offset the decrease for the other 96% of the population he will pay $114,000 in taxes.
According to :
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html there are a mere 7 million people in the top 5% and a mere 1.4 million in the top 1% tax bracket out of the 140 million or so tax filers in 2008. So who needs to stop there. Let’s give “rich” old Bart a tax break too and lets increase the taxes for the top 1% who make the huge bucks, or the top .1% who make millions and millions a year.
Now if I’m a millionaire and I’ve got lots more than a million or two then I can look at this two ways.
1) Gee, I’m getting the shit taxed out of me and the masses have lots and lots of money to spend, that is not fair, even though I have millions and millions I deserve to pay less.
2) Wow, look at all the money that the masses have to spend, why don't I try to put my money to use and try to get some more of that money for myself.
If you are a businessman selling shoes or microwaves or building garages or whatever, the good times are here when the people you are catering to have money to spend on the good you are selling. So there is an opportunity for the rich to invest and get richer if the un-rich have money to spend on what you are selling.
THIS CREATES JOBS
If you are rich and the masses (the 95% of us who are not rich) do not have jobs and do not have money to buy the goods and services that you are selling, then you don't create jobs, you don't pay your staff, you don't have the opportunity to create more business and everyone loses.
THIS IS WHERE WE ARE AT TODAY
So Bart, no one really cares about your little 7 figure net worth. No one wants to tax you any more than you already are, and hopefully if you ever reach the stratosphere where you have those millions rolling in you’ll see the opportunity of having a health population with tons of cash to spend on the businesses you own or the goods you manufacture.
No one is eliminating the rich, the point is to think long term, quit babying the rich and if they want a health economy to operate in then let’s let the 95% o the population have a little more of that slice of the pie. And instead of fighting over how much of a slice we’re all getting, maybe we can make a bigger pie so we can all have more.
CKA Moderator 
CKA Super Elite 
CKA Uber 
CKA Elite 
