Certainly episodic problems happen and can set a person several years but not over a 35 - 40 years of working

Who are today's rich ? For the most part they are people whose family were rich for generations and they went to the best schools. Yes, a small % of the rich were "self-made". The original INTENT of America was that EACH generation must make their OWN way. Inheritance tax was supposed to force that to happen. But, each generation found ways to legally and illegally overcome that basic idea of each generation starting at zero wealth. Look at today's wealthiest individuals and very few were "self-made" without prior generational wealth support.

Birth defects for one factor. Poor health for another.

I missed that in constitutional law class. Could you please point that out in the Constitution (of the United States of America).

Actually, US standard of living is only about 20th in the world. The top 10 is dominated by Scandinavian Countries. It is easy to look up.

I don't think many would begrudge paying some tax to help the disabled, those with congenital birth anomalies or even those with true/serious mental issues. But I think many do not want to subsidize the lazy, the frauds, the scammers and the professional takers who suck at the government teat for generations on end with no end in sight. Those able-bodied individuals who CHOOSE not to work should be forced to get off their butt or forfeit their "benefits" and stop having 6 babies by 6 different fathers to get a larger welfare check so they can buy beer, cigarettes and lotto tickets. My father lived through the depression, remembered the family having 3 cents in the cupboard on Monday that had to last until Friday but never, EVER considered going "on the dole". Now, we have those individuals who not only received it but demand it and think that it is their God given right to mooch of the effort of others. Bring back the WPA work camps of the thirties and let them EARN those benefits and build something at the same time. I'd start by having them widen I-95 to 6 lanes through the Carolinas.

What a crock! No one said the truly disabled, severe birth defect, severe mental illness or defects shouldn't be cared for here. Teach your children there is no free ride or living out of someone else's wallet. The idea is not to tax the successful so the unsuccessful can live well without effort, ridiculous.

We would not have this mess now if the employable in the US looked for and obtained employment and also dumped the drugs. Talk to business owners who are looking for English speaking employees. Many, many young adults are so incapable of anything more than computer games and feeding their faces.

There was a construction business that hired a high school graduate who was interested in carpentry and schooling toward that goal. He worked ONE day at a home building site and quit, he said he didn't want to work that hard.:22yikes:

Seniors really got screwed over on this one. No tax on tips phases out after $160,000/single. No tax on overtime phases out after $150,000/single or $300,000/couple. But the senior deduction phases out after only $75,000/single or $150,000/couple.

Great we can ship the "undocumented to Scandinavia , it would be in their best interest

That shows the difficulty of being middle class TODAY. In the 50s through 70s my father had a UNION job and without my mother working at all, he paid off his house and bought a new car every 3 years. THAT was how a TRUE middle class was better than this so-called middle class today.

That's true, but on the other side of the spectrum - you could have a 20 year old college student get involved in a hit and run accident. They end up blind and missing one leg and a hospital bill of 100 thousand dollars. Their job prospects are severely limited. Situations like that happen every day in the US. There has to be Government programs for someone like that because it could happen to anyone of US and at any time. That's why I believe that success is a combination of LUCK and hard work. A lot of successful people get all full of themselves believing that their success had nothing to do with luck. They pat themselves on the back and say, "look at me, I alone am responsible for my success". Personally, I am not inclined to believe them.

That's a screw job?...$75,000. single or $150,000. a year for old people with no children to raise, who have garnered the necessities of life and they need more? Whining about nothing!

Luck=Hard work unless you've won the gazillion dollar lottery.

Situations like that don't happen every day and college students should have health insurance unless they were depending on all that luck you were touting. There are successful people working every day who are missing a limb and they probably resent being outlined as worthless.

Yeah, those crazy union jobs. The union had their place but the balance was lost, IMHO. We had friends where the husband worked for a city. His retirement payout was huge and complete health care coverage. No co-pays, hearing aids, vision, dental, everything included and it was a gold mine. Unfortunately, the city went under trying to keep up with those blue collar bennies. Took them a while to recover and retirement benefits were realigned since they were unsustainable.

Hardly representative of the overall experience of the general population

It is NOT SPECIFICALLY mentioned in the constitution, but the 14th amendment says basically that the US should avoid DEBT. Thomas Jefferson wrote many times that debt should be avoided. So did James Madison and George Washington. Basically, the Founding Fathers worried about responsible Fiscal management.

Sure, let's play that game.

Instead of itemizing, which poor people can't do, and many non-poor somewhat middle-class can't do because the standard deduction is so high now...

Let's just impose a 2% PRE-deduction income tax on ALL adult Americans. No more student exemptions, no more child credits, no more tax cuts for the poor and middle-class or wealthy.

If you only earn $10,000 because you're a student working part time while attending school full time, you have to pay $200 at the end of the year to the IRS.

If you earn $1,000,000 because you're successful, you pay $20,000 to the IRS.

If you earn a billion dollars because you're super-successful, you have to pay $20 million to the IRS.

Lop those mandatory minimum payments off your gross income, cut a check, and send it in. And THEN you can itemize on whatever is left over.

"
A fair and equitable government would NEVER stop being responsible for every one living a life to the best of their ability."
Yes of course the GOVERNMENT is responsible for my happiness as well as any thing that an unkind person would suggest is any failing on my part

In the old days before everyone was forced to pay for all those that scream for help (whether fraudulently or legitimately), people had to rely on families and neighbors. Doing so kept people from acting stupid, or otherwise burning bridges with family, neighbors, and community. Back when everyone was a good citizen, partially because doing so kept bridges open.

Now, when people simply beg the guvmint for help, they also tell their parents, "F.You!" and are neighborhood tyrants.

Ahhhh, the simple days - when people were rewarded or held accountable in a myriad of ways for their actions. Great restraint on behavior that.

So much bad information. There are no cuts to SS, Medicare, or Medicaid. How do billionaires benefit from not taxes on overtime or tips? How many millionaires or billionaires get paid overtime or work for tips? NONE!
I’m also tired for catering to the so called poor. The only people we need to cater too are the veterans and handicapped, everybody else needs to work. If you want to live in poverty, that’s your choice, and you need to live with the consequences.
I’m all for entrepreneurs making what they can make. When I worked, I made much more than my counterparts because I was more valuable to the company. I didn’t feel bad.
Same goes for investing your money for retirement. Most people don’t or just give their money to an advisor hoping they will make them money. For me and my friends, we all spent many many hours learning how to invest so we should make more money for our retirement without feeling guilty.
We have so many bad programs that give moms more money for the more kids they have so they can just sit at home.
To be fair, the so called rich shouldn’t pay any more % of their income than anybody else in the USA. They should have implemented a flat tax decades ago, say 5-10% flat tax. If you don’t make much, you won’t pay much, and the 5-10% for the wealthy might be more than what they are paying now, probably not because they don’t make billion worth of income a year.
For all of us that planned to retire with financial freedom (should be everybody’s goal), the BBB is great since you have dividends, rental income and RMD’s. If you are working in a typical 8-5 job, the BBB would be much beneficial to you.
If you are poor, there are too many benefits already, the poor need to go to work.

Luck is when preparation and opportunity meet. Hard work is great preparation, and it helps create opportunities, bringing both ends of the equation closer together.

So in other words, white trash shouldn't be entitled to any benefits. Y'know, the ones who line up at the 7-11 to buy smokes, beer, lotto tickets, and have 6 babies from 6 different fathers. This is a novel idea and maybe a huge stretch but - what if - what if we expanded womens' health care for all these women, gave out free contraceptives? What if we mandated (and paid for) vasectomies for all males from the month after they hit puberty, until the day after their wedding? Then it could be reversed.

It'd be a whole lot cheaper than taxpayers covering the expense of those 6 kids in and out of ER because emergency rooms can't turn down patients, even if they're just there for the flu. I mean since you're taking away their health care, and they have 6 kids now and therefore need to be home and not working, they have no income - so SOMEONE has to keep those snot-nosed brats from infecting everyone at Walmart, hm?

The over all problem is hard work, determination and drive, as apposed to the much much smaller percentage you sight

If there's a train of thought that answers the question of "Intent of each generation to make its own way" in that reply, I seem to be missing it. Right now, the best way to avoid government debt is to drastically reduce the freebies given out.

A flat tax is favored by the super wealthy. They should WANT to pay MORE than the average person because they have benefited so MUCH from the US economic system. All economists laugh about the idea of a flat tax. Just Google that.