Outside of relieving the tax burden on the middle class and closing tax loopholes. What else "should" be done?
Wealth inequality in America
- Thread starter chanson78
- Start date
Are you saying Coach isn't worth it?
What's your point? That fact has also been true during prosperous times. That stat has nothing to do with the economy.
My apple tree grows great apples. It grows more apples in a year than your orange tree grows in a lifetime.
By paying a CEO less wont put a single dime more into the hands of the employees. It would all go to the shareholders.
If you want more, work for it....go get it. Opportunities are abundant for hard workers.
If you can't, won't, or incapable, then do the best you can.
My Dirt poor grandparents worked split shifts at a cotton mill for years in Aliceville. My Dad became a college professor by going to college on the GI Bill after Korea. I worked 4 years full time to go to college. I opened my own business three years ago after working fast food, then retail for 21 years. Finally moving into a corporate roll my last two...and it was hard.....
I'm so tired of whiners. Perhaps not everybody is entitled to a freaking trophy. Quit giving everything away. Maybe more would work hard and then actually make it without you having to give it to them...
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It's sad when people spend their energy wanting to decrease another's wealth rather than increasing their own. Jealousy is not a good substitute for work ethic.
I've told my story and my wife's story before. I grew up incredibly poor. I lived in a travel trailer during my elementary school years; a single-wide seemed like a mansion to me. I remember many no-present Christmases and birthdays. My wife came to this country with nothing - not even the ability to speak English. Neither one of us ever spent any time being jealous of other people's wealth. We just focused on obtaining our own.
Now, if a dirt poor country boy from Alabama and a non-English speaking, dirt poor refugee can achieve great success, what excuse does anyone else have?
I've told my story and my wife's story before. I grew up incredibly poor. I lived in a travel trailer during my elementary school years; a single-wide seemed like a mansion to me. I remember many no-present Christmases and birthdays. My wife came to this country with nothing - not even the ability to speak English. Neither one of us ever spent any time being jealous of other people's wealth. We just focused on obtaining our own.
Now, if a dirt poor country boy from Alabama and a non-English speaking, dirt poor refugee can achieve great success, what excuse does anyone else have?
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That's too much of a zero sum economics and class warfare point of view.
Once one decides to achieve disposable income, and then invest that disposable income, that person is one their way to being set for life.
If one's goal is to live paycheck to paycheck he will be a failure financially. If one achieves more, but squanders his disposable income he be a failure financially. They have no one to blame but themselves for being so shortsighted.
Unfortunately, government and Fed policy makes it more and more difficult for wise people of modest beginnings desiring to climb the financial ladder from winning. Look at the artificially high prices of food and gas alone. These things the government conveniently does not use in inflation calculations, yet these costs strip away thousands of dollars of household income every year. That money means little to the wealthy, who can absorb these costs, but it crushes the little guy who could have invested that money. Instead of building a nest egg and watching his portfolio mushroom over time, he's trying just to tread water financially. And that's the small stuff. Consider the guy who lost his job or his business or his house thanks to government trying to socially engineer the economy. He's set back financially at least a decade. He and his family may never recover. Multiply that by millions of people and that's a tremendous and permanent hit to the economy.
And destroyers like Obama blame the wealthy.
If the lazy leaches (probably closer to 5% than 47%) would get off their buds and pull their own weight and some of the wealthy would stop abusing their position to become even more wealthy, we would all be better off.
Again -- the wealthy have always abused their position -- from the beginning of time. That's not going to change. When the left quits using the 47% -- to implement Social Change -- it will change.....
I agree that the true lazy is not 47% -- more likely 20%. It used to be 5% -- but over the past 20 years, 20% is much more likely.....
See www.freetochoose.tv for answers from Milton Friedman. The videos are a little old but still apply.
Sales taxes are generally regressive. The degree to which they would be progressive or regressive depends on how it is set up.
Sales taxes are also easy to avoid - just don't spend money. See the yacht luxury tax for an example of how taxes can go terribly wrong. In my opinion - a flat tax is the best alternative.
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My parents divorced before I was a teenager. My father left our home and our mother was left to raise 6 children on her own. She worked 3 jobs and never accepted a dimes worth of welfare. She said it was a disgrace to accept what she called "charity" and she maintained her values throughout the remainder of her life.
I guess that's where I get my own work ethic.
My thoughts on success are: "Hard work never guarantees success, but I've never met a successful person who didn't work hard to achieve his/her success".
That said, if I work hard and achieve what I call success, no one except me has the right and authority to say how, when and where I dispose of the fruits of my labor. And btw, I don't call that "abuse". I call it my right to do as I please with what I've earned by my own talents, experience and hard work. If I decide to give it all away, that's my right. Otoh if I decide to sock it away in a bank account, that's my right also. I probably won't do that, but it is my right to do so if I see fit.
If you want to be successful, don't try to find a way to get mine. Get up off your lazy hind-end and get to work so that you can earn your own.
I guess that's where I get my own work ethic.
My thoughts on success are: "Hard work never guarantees success, but I've never met a successful person who didn't work hard to achieve his/her success".
That said, if I work hard and achieve what I call success, no one except me has the right and authority to say how, when and where I dispose of the fruits of my labor. And btw, I don't call that "abuse". I call it my right to do as I please with what I've earned by my own talents, experience and hard work. If I decide to give it all away, that's my right. Otoh if I decide to sock it away in a bank account, that's my right also. I probably won't do that, but it is my right to do so if I see fit.
If you want to be successful, don't try to find a way to get mine. Get up off your lazy hind-end and get to work so that you can earn your own.
I'd have to modify that a bit
Hard work never guarantees success, but success is not necessarily a sign of hard work.
In most things there are exceptions. Like the "trust fund baby" who's parents put in all the "heavy lifting" to build an enormous amount of wealth that he/she is profiting from. It happens. But I'd venture to say that most "rich people" put in some level of hard work and sacrifice that many didn't. Also, what we don't talk about a lot is how much attitude plays into one's success or lack there of.
You can put two people in the same situation and one will see all the problems of it and the other will see all the opportunities. I know there have been studies on what makes successful people "successful" and the most common thing that pops up in all the studies is attitude.
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A flat income tax is no less regressive and is likely more regressive than a sales tax.
Legitimately avoiding payment of taxes through not spending is a good thing in my opinion so I prefer sales taxes over income taxes.
Are you in favor of "prebates" or exemptions for food and other life necessities?
Also regarding the imposition of luxury taxes on cars, yachts, and jewelry in 1991, these were taxes targeted to the so-called "rich". A national sales tax, on the other hand, would apply to virtually all goods and services and to all people in the United States. Would the sale of luxury items be impacted? Possibly. Would the definition of "luxury" be expanded? Possibly. Many items consumed by the middle class such as electronics might become more "luxurious" and sales might decline as a result. But without an income tax, people would have access to all of their money/assets so maybe the behavior experienced in the early 1990's would not be experienced to the same degree with a national sales tax. Nevertheless, not spending is not such a bad behavior to encourage.
A flat tax is proportional by definition as everyone pays the same percentage of their income in taxes. Sales taxes, on the other, hand are highly regressive because the poor spend a larger percentage of their income than people with higher incomes.
I didn't mean to imply that not spending was a bad result. However, my point is that people on the upper end of the income distribution can change their spending behavior easier than those at the low end. Thus generating the high regressive nature of sales taxes.
Prebate? No, I don't think so. I don't like the idea of complicating the process by sending people a check from the government. I also don't like anything that might perpetuate the image of the government being your "sugar daddy" so to speak.
Exemptions for certain items such as food? Possibly. If there were exemptions, I'd probably make them very very limited: milk, cheese, fresh eggs, fresh meats, and fresh produce. But here's where it gets complicated in my opinion. Do you exempt luxury food items that fall into these same categories: rack of lamb, ribeye steaks, New York strips, beef tenderloin, parmigiano-reggiano, etc? If you expand what is exempted beyond what I originally listed, do you exempt the "bad for you" foods that the "poor" consume in volumes today such as canned and processed foods?
I see why the prebate is alluring -- you don't have to worry about having a detailed "formulary" of what is and is not exempted. Nevertheless, I'm not a fan of prebating, and I'm really not that much of a fan of exemptions.
Let's assume a 10% flat tax.
A person making $30K annually would pay $3K leaving $27K for expenses, etc.
A person making $300K annually would pay $30K leaving $270K for expenses, etc.
Would you agree that the person making $30K would feel more pain than the person making $300K? If you agree, then the flat tax is regressive in my opinion.
Regardless, avoiding regressive taxes should not be a consideration in my opinion.
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