You WEREN'T trying to be sarcastic? Because when you say things like "Well, the wealthy actually pay most of the taxes, so you should be grateful,*" you sound like a bootlicker, a wealthy person who isn't paying their fair share of taxes, or both. You sound like Mr. Six Figures himself, @Revengeofthenerds, saying that "The inflation in Texas really isn't that bad*." If the wealthy pay SO MANY taxes, why are the taxes of a little guy like me so important? That sounds a lot like "Trickle-down Economics," an economic theory that I think has been proven over the last 40+ years to be a huge failure to the middle and lower class. Also, do you really think that just because business owners' taxes are cut, or that profits improve, that equals raises for employees?! You must be high off your ass on airplane glue, delusional, or both. But I'd expect nothing less from you, since you work for yourself, and you haven't received a paycheck from a "boss" since... I don't know. And don't tell me your customers are your bosses. I hate the wasteful spending too (if you'll go back to my original post, that was one of my main complaints), but what do you propose we do? I already voted harder for the "best" candidates that were offered up to me. Do you mean poor people? Before anyone thinks that I'm going Commie, I think that Capitalism is the best system, BUT IT NEEDS REGULATION, and the people in power are actively working to destroy any sort of regulation, and have been successfully doing so for decades. If Nett, Juice, or anyone else tries to delete this as an argumentative post, I want to point out that it really illustrates some of the cultural/ financial divides in this country, and that's what (most) people are voting for/ angry about. *I'm paraphrasing here.
You're prematurely worrying about nothing. I consider this to be a reasonable discussion... you're not calling him a fucking asshole, or threatening to shove a hairbrush up his ass, or claiming that an airplane will never take off on a conveyor belt... so it's all good. Be passionate about your point of view, just don't be a dick.
1) I said it was not as bad as the rest of the country, especially the rest of the world 2) I have never said what I make. Regardless, do you realize how that comes across, that you keep mentioning this? And about me specifically? It's more than a bit whiny, and to be honest the fact that you keep targeting me is starting to seem a bit creepy.
Yes and no. I firmly believe that there's a lower tier "rich" person who does more to drive the economy than a big box store or some massive public company. Fuck the CEO of MegaCorp, but I think that Rush's point is spot on when talking about those people who are taking risks and starting their own small business in their local community. Doing that will hire people in the community, and economically stimulate it much more than the others, and I think that if you're willing to take that chance and be a small business owner, you should get addition financial help and tax breaks.
No one here is going to do that, dude. It's perfectly cool to be passionate about issues you care about, but you don't need to be quite so antagonistic towards other posters here.
No, I wasn't. I usually enjoy most of your posts, I'm still not sure why you're being so confrontational with me. I don't know what else I can say. I didn't say that, paraphrasing or not. I quoted it from a website that has the stats, that I linked in my post. They aren't? I wish your tax bill was smaller. Okay. I worked for other people, starting when I was 14, mowing grass and doing odd jobs. Then, I worked "real" jobs starting when I was 16, until I graduated when I was 23. I worked for a flower delivery service, as an ambulance dispatcher, at Subway, and spent 3 years working for survey field crews at engineering firms. Then, I worked full time as an engineer after I graduated from college, and eventually became a partner. After 12 years, I started my own firm, and have done that for 20 years. (I have had employees, and I definitely paid them more when my profits went up, but now I sub everything out and work alone.) I never licked any boots. Okay. I don't plan to offer a proposal here. No. That's your term and I never used it. For purposes of this discussion that started, I think you were talking about wealthy or rich people? So, if you are talking about that you could say not wealthy or not rich? I'm not sure. I've seen interesting proposals about flat taxes and national sales taxes. I think those are worth considering.
Case in fucking point. As if the issue with a president groping a minor is "language". Another day, another accusation: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/stacey-williams-goes-public-allegations-donald-trump-rcna177172
https://www.aol.com/russia-amplified-hurricane-disinformation-drive-221838585.html Sigh. Can confirm.
Taking Twitter comments section rumors as fact and insinuating detail less information could be tantamount to rape is deserving of mockery at a minimum. Get back to me when the video drops and then we can have a discussion of the real reality of the situation.
You know how they saw the Presidency will age a person, we've seen it in every modern case except one (guess) due to the sheer stress of trying to do a difficult job, well. A funny thing happens when you choose to forfeit reelection and you know the responsibility won't be yours anymore. https://x.com/cspan/status/1849592926445179145
Flat taxes and consumption taxes are directly and mostly harmful to lower income families. Consumption taxes generally mean that people with excess money can hoard it without penalty, while people who have to spend all of their money on living end up taxed on nearly every last dollar. Flat taxes are basically a non-starter for the same reason. It's insane to suggest that someone making $30k/year should pay the same tax rate as someone making $300k/year.
Oh, yes, totally agree with those comments. I don't think anyone has brought it up recently, because of those reasons. But, a few years ago, one of the national sales tax versions I saw eliminated the IRS, eliminated income tax, estate tax, gift tax and payroll taxes. All of the lower income earners would receive a "prebate" check (each month, I think) to help cover necessities. And, I think there are some goods that aren't taxed at all in the national sales tax? I can't remember. But, I'm not going to try and defend that, because I don't know enough of the details of the proposal. They're very scary, because they're so dramatically different. This includes for Congress, who would lose power and favors, when a corporation has less lobby strength to negotiate for specialty tax breaks, and so forth. (I assume accountants and tax prep companies also hated the idea.) Again, I think a national sales tax is worth considering, but people a lot smarter than me have to figure it out. And, unfortunately, many of the elected officials who could make those decisions are a lot dumber than me. (They're definitely all richer than me.) That's the rub.
just speaking personally here, we've almost always done better financially under a democratic president than a republican one, though we pay slightly lower taxes under a republican. Small business, republicans and especially the MAGAtwits now are courting and aligning their policies only to benefit the biggest fish in the pond. Whatever tax increase we do get under a dem is generally offset by the profit increase, if not close enough to be basically a wash. Further, at least locally, I do see my tax dollars being put to use. There's always going to be huge amounts of governmental waste, and I guess that's kinda baked in at this point, but seeing more schools being built (my boys just attended a new public school this year, which is INSANE), better roads and infrastructures, the park and greenway system is incredible -- all of this costs an insane amount of money, and I'm happy to contribute to it because I make damn good use of it, especially the parks and greenways. I also feel morally better seeing the burden being eased on the middle and lower class. We've done a lot with the local food bank over the years, and it's a double whammy for them that when times are tough for the community, their own resources and backing makes it difficult to deliver. Ideally places like them are there as a fail safe, but a lot of people rely on them.
Every consumer pays every last tax dollar anyway. Taxes corporations and the owners of corporations pay are part of the price we pay on goods and services. I propose a federal property taxes on luxury items. Extra taxes on second home and other assets the rich like to own.
You mean something like a... Luxury Tax? We already tried it and it lasted a whopping 2 years because of lobbying by the luxury yacht industry.