OT: Millionaires ask for higher taxes

[Percival P. Cassidy]

A video on the website has various people saying why they signed:

[Tegger]

"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in news:j1smve$pen$1 @dont-email.me:

Forbes magazine recently had an article on millionaires who want to pay higher taxes.

According to Forbes, apparently the IRS has something set up so that people who want to pay more tax than they need to may do so. The problem? just about everybody who actually contributes makes less than $25,000 per year. Almost no millionaires in the list of actual contributors.

[ChairMan]

The last time I checked, you can send the IRS a check at anytime you want if you feel you're not paying enough. It's real simple, if these so called *people* that say they don't pay enough simply changed the amounts they write off, they could easily pay much more. But as you said, *none* have stepped up and actually done it and that includes Buffet

[harryagain]

America is the land of greed. You didn't expect them to pay? Their mission is to grind the poor into the ground.

[Ed Pawlowski]

"ChairMan" wrote

At least some of them are giving to charity. A charity depends on donations, the US government should be able to make a sensible tax code so it takes care of itself.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

How could one establish a budget for a whole nation where part of the revenue comes from voluntary contributions?

Perce

[Kurt Ullman]

Buffett is an outlier anyway. He owns the place and has the ability to structure his pay anyway he wants to and he chooses to get most of it through dividends and other tax advantaged methods. Why I take little notice of his comparison to his secretary. Very few people can do what he does with his pay.

[Kurt Ullman]

Pretty much the same way we do now... guess work. Income tax revenue fluctuates with the economy. It is certainly volatile.

[HeyBub]

Duh! Almost always someone becomes a millionaire because he's smarter than your average rabbit. Smart people don't give their money to people who will just use it to buy beer, crack, a motorcycle, or fritter it away (I count the federal government in one of those groups).

[HeyBub]

I'm reminded of what Solomon said to his father (King David) when his father asked: "Are you still putting stumbling blocks in the path of the blind?"

Solomon said: "Duh! It wouldn't work to put stumbling blocks in front of people who could actually SEE them, would it?"

And while I have your attention, Harry, one blogger suggested the root cause of the riots in the UK.

"... lack of incoming fire" was his hypothesis.

[trader4]

Another interesting angle to think about. The top 5% of income earners pay about 60% of the total income tax collected. While the bottom 50% of income earners pay only 2% of the income tax. If you want to start playing the class warfare game, seems to me a case could be made that the taxes should instead be raised on those making lower incomes.

[Suga Moto Soy]

They top 5% also has 90% of all the wealth,so you feel sorry for the rich,you beer guzzling,redneck?

[despen]

Does that actually make sense to you?

First off, the statistic you cite is meaningless.

If there was one guy in the US making 10 trillion a year then the top .001% would be paying 99% of the total income tax.

How is that a justification for lowering the tax rate for people making

10 trillion?

It's not class warfare. It's taxing people that can afford it.

I love how these talking points get repeated over and over as if they actually make sense.

[trader4]

Exactly. There has always been an unequal distribution of wealth in the world. I'd like to see data that shows that in any of the socialist countries in western europe that it's significantly different. The only places that managed to get things close to equal for the vast majority of their citizens did it by forc reducing everyone to poverty through the elimination of most freedoms by force. A prime example being the former Soviet Union.

[harryagain]

It's how brainwashing works. Repetition. There are plenty of people here that are brainwashed.

It's done by circular argument with no outside feed in. The lies told grow stronger because of the lack of refutation.

I was watching RTV the other day. Apparently wealth in America has never before been so unequally distributed. Land of the free! Huh!

[Gordon Shumway]

I would think he doesn't feel sorry for one that is successful. If it weren't for the rich you would probably not have a job.

Gordon Shumway

Vote Democrat, it is easier than working.

[Kurt Ullman]

I have seen that tossed around, but never actually seen it backed up with anything reliable. As far as income is concerned (which is what INCOME taxes are built on), this isn't close to reality.

[despen]

Almost all businesses require both management and workers.

Nothing wrong with management being paid well, but I fail to see how that makes it a requirement that the workers be destitute.

Lately scientific progress has made it possible for almost all of us to live well. As a bonus, society works better that way.

[Gordon Shumway]

I would argue that those who are destitute are not the workers. They are the ones who by chance or choice are not working and therefore, paying no taxes. Those are the ones putting the burden on those that are working.

[HeyBub]

So what if they own 90% of the wealth? They earned it.

Take away what someone has earned, irrespective of whether he's got a lot or very little, and you destroy his incentive to earn more.