Quote: (05-23-2015 12:09 AM)speakeasy Wrote:
The people who pay the most are very high earning people who get most of their money from income.
Quote: (05-23-2015 12:39 AM)Samseau Wrote:
Most of the big money in America made their trillions when there were no taxes in America: The Rockafellas and Carnegies paid 0 dollars on their income or capital gain taxes.
Then when they made it to the top, they supported politicians who put the taxes, regulations, and chains on the rest of us.
Exactly. I'm all for taxes. In theory, they actually (can) pay for shit that we need. This idea of a taxless society is unrealistic. A graduated tax is not a bad idea, if it's actually graduated, not bulging in the middle and nowhere else.
The wrong people pay the taxes (the working middle class), and wrong people
spend those taxes (billionaires and their politician allies).
If you actually work for a living, especially if you're a young guy starting to get off the ground, you're getting fucked in the ass. A six-figure salary, as a normal single person, is a brutal bloodbath every two weeks--and I don't mean like this baseball player, who's getting screwed, but who's massive gross salary was probably calculated to what he would net in the end.
Six figures, after taxes, doesn't buy very much in any American city nowadays. I see more and more guys with valuable skills
living with 3 or more roommates and taking the bus. Meanwhile, unproductive leeches like bankers are making money hand over fist and pay a fraction of what the dude breaking his back for his new business, that he built off the ground and actually contributes to society, does.
The ultra rich then manipulate the media to convince enough people that the real problem is welfare cheats and illegal immigrants, so that we continue to elect people that tax the working and let the guys waiting by the mailbox for their dividend check off the hook. Sure, those people are also siphoning value from our society, but at least
some of them are making the hotel beds, picking fruit, and cooking meals. I'm all for dealing with the lazy who figure how to hustle up some food stamps while making money on the side, but I'd rather deal with these bankers and super-ultra billionaires who are fucking up our electoral system, throwing our young men into unnecessary wars in remote parts of the world in exchange for a pittance "for college," and making our women and children into fat iPhone addicts for their selfish profit. They basically drag-and-drop icons on computers all day and pull $60,000/week--and that's at best, because that's arguably still
somewhat work. Many don't even have to leave the house, because they were born on third base and never have to do a real job ever. At the same time, the guy who owns the neighborhood hardware store--where they can actually answer your basic do-it-yourself question, and not make you ring up your own purchases at an automated machine--has a "going out of business" sign in his window.
If you want to see a good example of what I'm talking about, do a search for whole apartments in Manhattan (not a shared room). Set the parameters for a decent neighborhood, and don't bother to limit the price. This is what you get.
Who can afford this? Bankers, brokers, and other tax-free leeches. There are dozens upon dozens of places like this. They don't all face the beach, or central park, or take up a whole floor. Do you think this is only NYC? It may be worse there, but this is microcosm of the entire country.
The ultra rich's attitude: Squeeze a bunch of you tax-paying suckers into a shitty apartment in bad neighborhood so that I can own two of these baller apartments closer to the real job that you're stupid enough to work.