Top income brackets should be taxed at 99%.

I will gladly pay more in taxes, many really rich people have said please tax us. I will in no way benefit in raising taxes.

But I understand the poor attempt at deflection. It’s your only argument.

 

Sorry, I don’t drive beaters.

 

There is nothing either fair or efficient about a flat tax.

There is a difference between working your @$$ off to produce and working your @$$ off to make sure your pockets are in the path of production.

Do you think working hard to take more than you contribute earns you some kind of merit badge?

 

Avoiding?
Why does someone who can, owe you anything?

 

The question was why should someone pay more than you.
Do try to keep up

 

Your opinion is noted.

As is your lack of understanding that, properly implemented, it's the most fair system we could have...

And yet, you acknowledge that both work their asses off.

I used to work for a guitar company in California. The owners started the business in what was essentially a garage. They almost shuttered the joint a half dozen times in the early days.

Now the owners are millionaires, with hundreds of employees who are all treated very well and are paid above the industry standard. They haven't built a guitar in over 20 years, but they don't owe anyone anything...

No, I think it earns me the right to keep what I earn instead of shelling it out for some lazy oaf who's content living out his pitiful little life on public assistance.

The only people who accuse the wealthy of taking more than they contribute are those who understand they'll never possess the wherewithal to be successful themselves.

Jealousy is an ugly wench...

 

Civic duty?

No, I don't. I have exactly no responsibility to take the burden of some guy living below the poverty level. That's not my job. You know how I know this? Because I was once that guy living below the poverty level.

See, this is interesting.

When I was close to broke, no one gave me anything. If I wanted something I had to work for it. You know what that did? It assigned value to whatever it was I was striving for. It made me appreciate what I'd accomplished. It instilled an even deeper work ethic.

No, it's ludicrous. It's fair because everyone is paying the same percentage of what they earn. Now, I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain to you how percentages work, but if everyone pays the same percentage, that's fair.

But, hey, what the Hell? Let's charge everyone the same dollar amount. It's a stupid idea, to be sure, but let's run with it. How much should that be? $500? $10,000? Tell you what, let's make it $15,000. I can do that without breakin' a sweat. That guy working to feed his family's gonna' really feel it in the shorts, though. Why would you want to make his life more difficult than it is?

Instead, if we only taxed 10%, that guy is keeping 90% of his income.

You should just admit that you're jealous of the wealthy and all you want is a punitive amount of tax because of that jealousy.

Oh, and I know a lot of people who you would consider "rich". Only one of them inherited his wealth. Everyone else worked for it...

Why not?

Being poor is a choice. More accurately, it's the result of making poor choices. The people who should bear the burden for those poor choices are the people who make them, and no one else. I accepted responsibility for my poor choices and changed my life. My life is now 180° from what it was just a few years ago.

I'm nothing special. I'm not college educated. I've got a high school diploma which took me three summers in summer school to get. To my friends, I'm "the rich guy", but my daily driver is still a 2014 Chevy Malibu.

I have little sympathy for those who resign themselves to a life of misery instead of having the sack to do the heavy lifting required to better themselves...

 

If you do that, the CEOs will just leave and new CEOs won't enter the country.

 

Ironic PROJECTION duly noted FTR!

 

The person making $10 million can easily AFFORD to pay $3 million in taxes without any impact at all to their standard of living.

The person making $20k would end up HOMELESS if they had to pay $6k in taxes.

That is why there are PROGRESSIVE taxation rates and not a single flat rate.

 

So all of those children BORN into POVERTY made a CHOICE?

Being BORN into poverty means NOT having CHOICES!

You don't get to CHOOSE to "eat healthy" when there is barely enough money to put even the CHEAPEST food on the table.

You don't get to CHOOSE to go to the BEST SCHOOLS because you can't afford to live in the areas with the best schools or the time and expense of commuting to those schools.

You don't get to CHOOSE to have the OPPORTUNITIES that will enable you to get out of poverty because millions of others are all trying to grab the meager opportunities that do exist.

So the utterly asinine belief that poverty is a choice has no factual basis whatsoever.

 

Great!

That means that new CEO's will come from the rank and file workers and will KNOW what it is like to be underpaid.

 

This makes a rather false assumption that CEO's don't come from the rank and file.

No one becomes a CEO as their first job...

 

Back to that tired and deflective answer.

Why do you not actually respond to the subject matter? I know it's easier not to, because perhaps your argument may not hold up, but how about giving it a go? Would love to actually see what you have to say to my post.

 

Underpaid is subjective, according to the view of the person who thinks their work has a higher value than the market does.

People who usually become CEOs understand that pay is based on the value of the production of the person, not what they feel they should be paid, or what they need to support their personal lifestyle.

And value of production is not just widgets produced, it is attitude, aptitude and the willingness to see a bigger picture than a single, solitary paycheck.

 

Their parents did.

I shouldn't have to pay for that...

There's no great shortage of people in this country who are wildly successful but who were born into poverty. These people had a choice to make: stay poor or make something of themselves.

They chose the latter...

All of that is utter nonsense.

No one owes you anything. If you're poor and can't afford to put healthy food on the table or live ina neighborhood with better schools, then that's merely a result of the choices you make...

I will capitulate that, for you, it does not. You're afraid of facts and, presumably, doing the hard work to better yourself...

 

natural selection comes to mind...

 

What a foolish thing to say.

First off, unless you've had to pay $3 million in taxes on your $10 million income, you can only speculate how it would impact them. You say it would be easy, simply because you have no real concept of what it's like to live with his salary.

Conversely, he could rightly state that $6,000 is nothing for you to pay, simply because he has no concept of what it's like to live with your salary.

Second, your comment assumes that the millionaire doesn't have a standard of living commensurate with a $10 million salary. There's an old adage: The more you make, the more you spend...

 

Back in September I had to make a road trip to Ohio. On the way home to Florida, I stopped in some fast food joint. I walked to the counter and ordered whatever grilled chicken meal they had and the girl at the counter said "You have to use the kiosk to order."

I asked "You can't take my order? I'm here, you're here, the cash register's here... No?"

"No, sir."

Someone else bagged the food up and brought it to the counter girl who, in turn, handed it to me. She didn't even pour my drink. She just gave me the cup. Her greatest effort of the day was saying "Number 22!"

These are the people whining about how they need to be paid $15 an hour.

For what??

 

that is the problem with socialists, they just enjoy the argument, deflecting, blaming others, while never actually offering their pov nor any remedies, just "the onus is on you"... yeah, that'll work... not

 

That is entirely YOUR fallacious assumption, not mine!

 

Get back to me when you have a substantive position rather than just a regurgitation of the utterly debunked blame-the-victims disinformation.

 

Irrelevant deflection from the point that I was responding to.

 

Puerile ad hom because you have nothing of substance to offer in the way dealing with the factual reality of poverty and instead just spout the meaningless pablum about "poor choices" duly noted and ignored for obvious reasons.

 

Thank you for establishing that your subject matter knowledge is lacking when it comes to the concept of progressive taxation.

Have a nice day!