What’s a typical tax rate for lower income brackets in the US? Here, someone earning about $20/hour would pay about 16.5% of income tax. Of course, there’s VAT and other taxes (fuel, car, media) on top of that.
[QUOTE=c.captain;139065]So what can be done next? Perhaps make the very very wealthy just a bit less so through higher taxation. [/QUOTE]
What is the point of that? That statement just makes it look like you hate the rich because they are rich, not because some of them abuse the condition.
Punish abuse, make it a major crime to buy influence - for the buyer and the seller - with penalties that put them in prison for a long long time and confiscate their property and wealth. Put some teeth in the laws that are supposed to regulate elections, banking, investment, and every other financial enterprise. Enforce them. Make anyone who has access or control of anyone else’s money hold a license, even a cashier at McDonalds. If and when a financial criminal gets out of jail, the only work they will ever be able to do is lawn work or other manual labor. They will have lost their “business person’s” license for life.
Everyone should have the right and opportunity to get hugely rich … but that right should carry a huge responsibility to follow the rules. Make economic criminals, political corruption, and “white collar” criminals the social and legal equivalent of child molesters, in every respect.
you say To-MAY-to…I say To-MAH-to…why don’t we agree to just say “AH FUCK IT”?
Sounds like passing arrangements in Fourchon to me…
[QUOTE=rigdvr;139101]Sounds like passing arrangements in Fourchon to me…[/QUOTE]
Eye seez ewe on da wun dere cap’n afer eye toparoun infrona da ceepore
[QUOTE=c.captain;139093]you say To-MAY-to…I say To-MAH-to…why don’t we agree to just say “AH FUCK IT”?[/QUOTE]
I didn’t say that … I said hang the crooks. Being rich doesn’t automatically mean you are a crook.
I will be a lot happier when there are more congressmen in jail than pot smokers. We have the biggest prison population on the planet and the streets of D.C. are still crowded with limousines full of politicians who never worked a day in their lives. Something is very very wrong.
[QUOTE=Steamer;139105]I didn’t say that … I said hang the crooks. Being rich doesn’t automatically mean you are a crook. [/QUOTE]
agreed that being rich doesn’t automatically make one an ethically challenged person but neither does holding public office yet many who do hold office or are rich are VERY challenged indeed. I would love to see prison time both for corrupt Congresspersons as well as the CEOs of the investment banks which defrauded the US economy yet you should be enough of a realist to know that is not coming.
Obviously you miss my point that while perfectly legal to be rich, the rich have perverted the system to their clear and convincing benefit at the expense of the American citizenry as a whole and all I am advocating is that benefit be reduced substantially through whatever means are available. To me the best means is to not allow the very rich to offshore their wealth if earned in the US and then to pay a substantially higher taxes on their total holdings. To me anyway, that would create a paved road for all to drive on and bring this nation into more balance between the very few “haves” and the very many “have nots”.
Megayachts to me are simply a symbol of how the balance has shifted to heavily to the very wealthy. You know all too well how many ultra yachts have been built in the past 30 years since Ronald Reagan’s administration began the policy called “Trickle Down”. “Trickle Down” never did a single GODDAMNED thing to help the working people in the country and has been the biggest giveaway to the wealthy in US history. The 2nd Bush Administration force fed steroids to “Trickle Down” and we see where that ended up. Obama marginally raised taxes on the wealthy and guess what? Job growth ever since!
We need to get back to PROGRESSIVE taxation where the very wealthy pay a greater percentage of their wealth to the nation. As it stands now, the 15% tax on capital gains and deferred interest is CRIMINAL and sending the nation into Banana Republic status. It should be 33% at least with only a few qualifying deductions such as charitable contributions! Even you must agree with that.
Change the laws concerning the private funding of public campaigns and change the tax code…then close KP and America gets a rebirth!
[QUOTE=Tups;139086]And as a result, rich people could accumulate wealth more easily while those who are already financially struggling would have to pay more for basic necessities such as food…[/QUOTE]
Not true at. With no income tax a lot of income would come home from offshore, the US would become the best place to do business in the world, and there would be a flood of capital from the rest of the world into the US. There would be a lot of money floating around and plenty of opportunities for anyone with gumption to earn their share.
We really need a way on the forum to nominate gems like this post for post of the year.