Quote: (10-28-2011 12:41 PM)Smitty Wrote:
Quote: (10-28-2011 11:04 AM)PDX Wrote:
Quote: (10-28-2011 10:47 AM)The_CEO Wrote:
Well you need to be against it more then.
What a lot of people don't seem to grasp in spite of the data being obvious, is that the wealth has already been re-distributed upwards and has been for the last 20 years or so. E.g. Clinton's 2.4 trillion $ surplus, given to the 1% as a tax giveaway.
Exactly. Wealth redistribution from the poor to the wealthy is seen as healthy capitalism. Wealth redistribution from the wealthy to the poor is seen as socialism.
And the public is so brainwashed they'll argue in favor of the former, and vilify the latter.
So when tax rates are lowered, the wealthy keep more of what they earn and the poor receive less of what they have not earned.
Try facts some time.
"If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot.
To understand why, you need to examine the sources of government revenue. Last year about 80 percent of these revenues came from personal income taxes and payroll taxes. The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.
I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation."
Warren Buffet
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinio...-rich.html