[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by jimjamuser

Just compare the tax brackets and tax % of today to those of 1950 (when the middle class was KING). And it is easy to see that upper-income taxpayers control the US. In other words, fewer and FEWER people (the upper 1%) are controlling everything in the US. As less and less people have more and more power.......WHAT DO YOU END UP WITH.........a dictatorship like Hitlers or the current Russian despot. America is headed that way, I hope smart people like the other poster realize this simple fact.

Nice post (not)---why am I not surprised

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

10% is fine too. Make all the uber wealthy - that other 10% of taxpayers, take the standard deduction, and pay 10%.

Good luck convincing anyone to pass THAT through senate and congress though. The top 5% of wealth in this country itemize enough that their tax obligation is much less than 10%, and some of them pay nothing at all in taxes.

So sure - bring it on. 10% tax, with standard deduction ONLY, no more itemizing at all, for everyone.

A flat tax is also something that would be enjoyed by the uber-rich. The only fair federal tax system WAS AND I DO MEAN WAS.......the TRUE PROGRESSIVE tax system used by the US of A in the 1950s. Note to those who don't know what progressive means.......it means that those with the higher income pay a bigger tax % than those with lower incomes. It is the American fair way ..........and it is DEAD today.........Look at the Zuckerbergs and Bezos. They are the beginning of rich industrial fascists that have taken over America.

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by jimjamuser

..Look at the Zuckerbergs and Bezos. They are the beginning of rich industrial fascists that have taken over America.

Bezos paid $1.5 BILLION in fed taxes...........how much more do you want him to pay??

Might be a low %, but it's still $1.5 BILLION.



All I can say is, Thank You Mr. B.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by jimjamuser

A flat tax is also something that would be enjoyed by the uber-rich. The only fair federal tax system WAS AND I DO MEAN WAS.......the TRUE PROGRESSIVE tax system used by the US of A in the 1950s. Note to those who don't know what progressive means.......it means that those with the higher income pay a bigger tax % than those with lower incomes. It is the American fair way ..........and it is DEAD today.........Look at the Zuckerbergs and Bezos. They are the beginning of rich industrial fascists that have taken over America.

Our progressive tax is ANYTHING BUT "FAIR" . It punishes success, it is Robin Hood socialism taking away from those who worked to succeed and handing it over to those who contributed nothing. It rewards failure and laziness at the expense of those that have contributed. How many people do those "rich industrial fascists" employ??? How much do they contribute to charities. And how many are employed by the 47% that pay nothing and live off the government teat?

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

Bezos paid $1.5 BILLION in fed taxes...........how much more do you want him to pay??

Might be a low %, but it's still $1.5 BILLION.



All I can say is, Thank You Mr. B.

Thank you. And that's the fallacy of those who want them to pay even more---We don't pay our bills in "percentage points". Federal employees don't deposit "percentages" every week. We pay in DOLLARS, and 1.5 billion is plenty of them. Geez, the mentality of those that think they deserve a piece of his pie simply because they were born.

[Laker14]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

Could be because the base wealth as been taxed already and will probably be taxed again at death. Maybe.

keep dreaming.

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by Laker14

keep dreaming.

Not dreaming........How was the base wealth generated & not taxed???

Don't give minor exceptions...........explain how the vast majority of the base wealth was not taxed.

I'm curious.

Exclude paper wealth.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by rustyp

And that same 1% owns more wealth than the entire middle class. Statistic from the Federal Reserve.

True that and ANY country WITHOUT WEALTH for the average middle-class citizen is a country that probably will NOT EXIST in about 3 more years. Middle-class wealth brings stability and peace to a nation. Lack of middle-class WEALTH brings CHAOS and instability to any country.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by tuccillo

Doubtful. One way to drive your tax rate down is to not have W-2 income but realize capital gains since the tax rate is typically lower than W-2 income. For example, Elon Musk typically has no tax liability since he has no W-2 income. However, when he does sell stock he does pay a lot of tax - $11 billion is 2021. Max capital gains rate is 20% (can be up to 28% for some assets). Regardless, the upper 10% basically pay the vast majority of the taxes. Look it up or read post #123.

And WHY is "the capital gains rate typically lower"? Because the RICH lawyer-Congress-people voted to RETAIN their own richness at the expense of the middle-class and stability for the US as a country. That is WHY the US had a strong middle-class in the 40s through about 1975, but then the RICH politicians started nibbling away at the middle-class. Industrial factories move away from the Northeast to the South in order to AVOID unions, then moved to Mexico, then moved to Vietnam, and eventually China.
.......So, HUMOROUSLY, to avoid those TERRIBLE THINGS called UNIONS, we made our potential enemy, China, VERY RICH. Way to go Washington geniuses.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by rustyp

And that same 1% owns more wealth than the entire middle class. Statistic from the Federal Reserve.

Great point!

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

So what???? Is that a reason to punish success?? And in turn give it away to losers????

Successful is NOT the problem. The PROBLEM begins when the successful decide that they need MORE than just success............they decide that they need POWER - and as we ALL KNOW - POWER corrupts. SO, SINCE 1975, the US has lost its unions, its middle class, and all for the objective of placing POWER in the hands of fewer and fewer people - until today the US is fighting chaos, RUNAWAY greed, and the DISTINCT possibility of LOSING its hard fought for and successful American system of FREEDOM. Once you lose it, it never comes back......just talk to the Russians.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

So what???? Is that a reason to punish success?? And in turn give it away to losers????

lower-income people are NOT LOSERS. They have fought all the wars that the US has engaged in (many started by the wealthy for greed and more government contracts). Lower income people are considered NOBLE people in most CARING societies. Try going to Finland and knocking lower income people as losers. They will NOT buy that pathetic BS.
.......Lower income people do ALL the hard, difficult jobs in EVERY country on this planet. They will NOT be called LOSERS BY ME.

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

10% is fine too. Make all the uber wealthy - that other 10% of taxpayers, take the standard deduction, and pay 10%.

Good luck convincing anyone to pass THAT through senate and congress though. The top 5% of wealth in this country itemize enough that their tax obligation is much less than 10%, and some of them pay nothing at all in taxes.

So sure - bring it on. 10% tax, with standard deduction ONLY, no more itemizing at all, for everyone.

Not true. See the chart in this article:

Here'''s What the Average American Pays in Federal Income Taxes | The Motley Fool

INCOME RANGE (AGI). AVERAGE TAX LIABILITY EFFECTIVE TAX RATE (% OF AGI)

$1 to $25,000 $208 1.7%

$25,000 to $50,000 $1,871 5.2%

$50,000 to $100,000. $6,251 8.7%

$100,000 to $200,000. $16,977 12.6%

$200,000 to $500,000 $55,536 19.5%

$500,000 to $1 million $173,678 25.8%

$1 million to $10 million $632,146 29%

$10 million and above $7,884,775. 26.1%

Overall average $9,118 13.9%

[JMintzer]

///Double Post...

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Laker14

Well that's a tad over-generalized.
When the former president who brags about his great wealth, which he estimates at "several billion" is found to have paid $750 in taxes one might wonder about a few things,

1. a billion dollars invested in a 2% CD, (you don't have to be to be a stable genius to find that rate of return in "the world's greatest economy") would generate 40 MILLION dollars. That's ONE billion invested that way. $750 on 40 Million is a tax rate of
.001875%. Now that is a nice tax rate, isn't it?

2. why do we tax income instead of wealth? Because the wealthiest people make the rules, so a father of three, working 60 hours a week who seldom gets to see his kids because his life is evaporating while he's working so hard making 200K,, gets taxed at 40%, while a multi-billionaire who lifts not a finger to make 40MILLION in invested income has a tax rate of .001875%....

Yeah, it's great to be the ones with the power to make the rules.

That is a VERY impressive post!