reflections on the elections...

[Red Arrow]

So, you are making the case that the richest should continue to get the 16% solution while the rest of us get to pay 40%.

Guess we know where you dwell on the spectrum.  Hope to be up there with you soon!

Where I  actually dwell is a flat income tax with deductions for a basic no frills cost of living.  Then, after a certain threshold due to the mentioned deduction, if you make twice as much you pay twice as much. 

Other issues may or may not have their own merit.  Unless SS benefits continue to climb with contributions, I have no problem with not charging SS tax above a certain income.  Maximum benefits should correlate with a maximum cost. I will be really unhappy if my SS benefits are reduced because I have been stupid enough to try to save (401K etc) for a better retirement.

The idea of a Capital Gains rate is to support businesses that support our economy.  I guess you don't want to support businesses.

For most of us, myself included, our taxes will double before our income does.

[heironymouspasparagus]

We supported business for the last 9 years.  And they supported us, but supported their executives disproportionately much better.  Why continue to reward bad behavior??

SS does keep going up with higher contributions.  If you make $50k a year, your retirement will be less than if $100k.  Always been that way.  Which brings us to the fallacy of the SS trust fund - financial isolation of moneys - well, that fantasy is so lame; should just get rid of it and let's quit lying about it.

[Red Arrow]

We supported business for the last 9 years.  And they supported us, but supported their executives disproportionately much better.  Why continue to reward bad behavior??

SS does keep going up with higher contributions.  If you make $50k a year, your retirement will be less than if $100k.  Always been that way.  Which brings us to the fallacy of the SS trust fund - financial isolation of moneys - well, that fantasy is so lame; should just get rid of it and let's quit lying about it.

So we should trash business and replace it with what?  Government defined salaries?  Hugo Chavez style nationalization of businesses that tick off the government?  I agree some executives should have been executed severely punished, especially those that ran their companies into the ground and then left with platinum parachutes  leaving stock holders and regular employees holding the bag.

My impression of the talk about removing the upper limit of salary to pay SS on did not include benefits to follow. SS fund isolation, agreed.  The treasury has been raiding it for years, both Republicans and Democrats.  Also the first recipients did not fund their benefits. That was long ago enough that that could have been made up by now. Obviously it hasn't. I still want something for paying into the system for the last 30+ years.

[nathanm]

So we should trash business and replace it with what? 

There's a place between giving executives free reign to do whatever they like, consequences be damned, and regulating the snot out of them and/or nationalizing their businesses.

[Red Arrow]

There's a place between giving executives free reign to do whatever they like, consequences be damned, and regulating the snot out of them and/or nationalizing their businesses.

One of them involves having a Board of Directors (or whoever hires these jerks) with the guts to tie CEO salary to performance and killing the parachute for lack of performance.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Who said anything about trashing business???  Typical Murdochian knee jerk insanity response.

I HAVE been saying all along that these people who are reaping (raping) so much from the work of regular people should AT LEAST pay their fair share.  And if my fair share is determined by the tax code to be 40%, then they should be paying a cumulative total of that much...or at least half of it, anyway!!

But I guess I can't expect the RWRE to think in any terms that deviate from the script.  Might cause a brain fart that would blow those brains out.

Geez....

[Cats Cats Cats]

I literally saw somebody on fox news use the argument.  That they shouldn't increase the top tax rate because they will just find a way to not pay the taxes.  How does that logic work?

[Cats Cats Cats]

Where I  actually dwell is a flat income tax with deductions for a basic no frills cost of living.  Then, after a certain threshold due to the mentioned deduction, if you make twice as much you pay twice as much. 

Other issues may or may not have their own merit.  Unless SS benefits continue to climb with contributions, I have no problem with not charging SS tax above a certain income.  Maximum benefits should correlate with a maximum cost. I will be really unhappy if my SS benefits are reduced because I have been stupid enough to try to save (401K etc) for a better retirement.

The idea of a Capital Gains rate is to support businesses that support our economy.  I guess you don't want to support businesses.

For most of us, myself included, our taxes will double before our income does.

Except it is said that small business is the heart of the US economy.  So unless your small business is publicly traded the capital gains tax isn't going to help your business.

[Red Arrow]

Typical Murdochian knee jerk insanity response.

Typical Heironymouspasparagusian response. 

[heironymouspasparagus]

Absolutely!!!  There must be a voice of reason and logic amongst all the RWRE swill!!

[Red Arrow]

I literally saw somebody on fox news use the argument.  That they shouldn't increase the top tax rate because they will just find a way to not pay the taxes.  How does that logic work?

If it costs less to pay an accountant to figure out how to not pay taxes than it would cost to just pay the tax, guess where the money will go.

[Red Arrow]

Absolutely!!!  There must be a voice of reason and logic amongst all the RWRE swill!!

We obviously have a difference of opinion regarding the reason and logic of your responses.

[Cats Cats Cats]

If it costs less to pay an accountant to figure out how to not pay taxes than it would cost to just pay the tax, guess where the money will go.

So by that logic we should increase the tax rate even more to compensate.

[Red Arrow]

Except it is said that small business is the heart of the US economy.  So unless your small business is publicly traded the capital gains tax isn't going to help your business.

Maybe there should be a way to allow small businesses to take advantage of the Capital Gains rates.

[Red Arrow]

So by that logic we should increase the tax rate even more to compensate.

No, then it would be even more attractive to hire an accountant to find a way to pay less tax than just paying the tax.