Posted by greeny9 on 6/9/2014 1:46:00 PM (view original):
Posted by tecwrg on 6/9/2014 1:02:00 PM (view original):
Posted by burnsy483 on 6/9/2014 12:43:00 PM (view original):
Well here's the question, then. Do you think that society is better off if 90-something% of the population are paying lower taxes then they are now, and the top 1-5% are paying more, or if 90-something% of the population pays more than they're paying now, and the top 1-5% pay less (flax tax rate you're suggesting).
I think society is better off when everybody is treated equally and fairly. Discrimination based on financial success and/or social status doesn't feel like it fits that model.
Really? Well then I'd argue that you have not thought about the consequences. If everybody where taxed equally the bottom 50% would be taxed more leaving them with even less money to spend then they do right now, so less money being spent at mcdonalds and Walmart. What exactly does that do to the economy? Now if the top say 5% were to pay this equal tax then obviously they total tax they pay would be less. Does that mean they are going to spend more? Don't think so, because the difference to them is negligible like I said what's the difference if your annual salary is 8.5 million or 9.25 million? It won't make a lick of difference to the amount of money you spend. So doing this the economy would suffer hard core. Now let's flip it, a more progressive tax would give more money to the bottom 50, and most if not all that money will be spent at McDonald's and Walmart, which means the economy strengthens. Meaning more money for everybody, which means for the top 5% whom own all these companies anyways. So in the end they will make up the small shortfall in taxes that they paid. And in the end most of that money is going off shore anyways so that they pay less taxes anyways, because that is what the super rich do. How does that sound to u tec?
Sounds like you're trying to funnel money to super-corporations McDonalds and Walmart.
But seriously . . . .
You start with a standard exemption for everybody, rich or poor. The first $x of your income are not taxed. Flat income tax rate above that. For everybody, rich or poor.
The less money you make, the larger percentage of your income is exempt. That's simple math. From an overall "what percentage of my income am I paying in taxes?", the poor are paying a smaller percentage and the rich are paying a larger percentage (which converges to whatever the flat rate is for the super rich).
It's fair, it's one set of rules that's applied to equally to everybody (rich or poor), and it inherently provides some sort of "protection" for those at the lower end of the financial scale.
How does that sound 2 u, greeny?