[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by jimjamuser

In the 2nd paragraph of the post - "In the 50s, the middle class carried more of the tax burden than they do today".......That is true. And the reason for the middle class paying a large share of the total US taxes is well known. Historically, the US was basically a MANUFACTURING country in the 50s and the workers in those mills had UNIONIZED (after fighting for them). People left the farms to work in the mills because the PAY was HIGH. The middle class had MONEY, so therefore they paid a LOT of the US taxes. ......THEN,
.........without going into ALL the detail, the uber-rich mill owners and stockholders FOUGHT back against the Unions by moving the location of PRODUCTION. They 1st moved to the US South, then Mexico, and finally to countries like Viet Nam and primarily China. This caused the US middle class and Unions to be virtually eliminated today. Effectively the money flowing to the US middle class in the 50s was now (today) sent to create a STRONG Chinese middle class and a STRONG Chinese country.

It seems to be ironic today to BLAME the middle and poor classes for NOT paying enough taxes ......when the US did that to itself because of GREED. Note.....the same case can be made for keeping school budgets LOW and school taxes LOW. It has ALL eaten away at the STRENGTH and fabric of the American dream. In the 1950s people would say that the NEXT generation will be better off than the PRIOR generation. Today, no one says that.......which sort of PROVES what I am saying .......does it not ?

I have some doubts that the last part of the 2nd paragraph is TRUE. But even if it IS, We, the US has only ourselves to blame. Also, paying taxes is a "pay-as-you-go system". So, the US collects the tax money from the working poor beginning in January. So, the Federal Government receives the interest on that money (the time value of money). Then, for the end of the year the worker files their tax form. Depending on exemptions and other factors, they may owe more or get a refund. It is UNFAIR to criticize their refund that they may have gotten because Congress makes the tax laws and part of their consideration may be SOCIAL STABILITY. Personally, I would not reward taxpayers for child exemptions greater than 2, but that IS the law and has BOTH advantages and disadvantages to society. Many people believe that poor and middle-class taxpayers CHEAT on their taxes. To me, this is a smokescreen for the REAL cheats .........the uber-wealthy and their uber-wealthy tax lawyers.

Have you ever done payroll for a company? I do. Every two weeks.

The "working poor" should not have ANY Federal Tax withholding. If they do, it's only because they want the "forced savings program" of the government taking their money for a year, paying them ZERO interest and then giving it back in April... Not a very sound financial policy...

I advise my employees to minimize their withholding, so they have access to ALL of their money. So far (and it's only been 35 years, so I may not be completely sure... ), no one has complained...

No one complains if anyone gets a refund based on taxes paid. It's those who pay ZERO into the system and then get $1000s of dollars back who cause the raised eyebrows... Right now, that is almost 50% of the population...

And it was the US Tax laws that caused so much production to be moved overseas...

When "someone" started decreasing corporate taxes, overseas production started to return and the US treasury took in MORE money... go figure...