Journal Marxist Hacker 42's Journal: Mathematically Greed is Evil 14
First, it's a myth that 47% of Americans don't pay taxes- 86% do, it's just that it isn't all federal income tax. Which led me to ask, are there any other crony capitalist myths used by the GOP to get social conservatives like myself to vote for billionaires? Turns out there's no job creation in the 10 years of Bush tax cuts, which means trickle down economics no longer works.
Slashcode 2.0 is evil
Slashcode 2.0 is evil
Good corrolary posting (Score:2)
To my observations and finds on compound interest and the unsustainable nature of debt.
ebeb (Score:2)
When was it working? Did I miss a Memo?
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Some conservative groups credit Reagan's tax cuts with the late 1980s boom. But this proves it didn't work.
I don't pay income taxes... (Score:2)
But then I don't make any money. It's irresponsible to expect someone who earns something like $60 a month by doing odd jobs for friends and family to pay any taxes. Plus, every single house mom doesn't pay taxes either.
The statistics should really point to how many people make at least X, which is where income starts exceeding the deductible amounts, such that they would actually be expected to pay any taxes, because as I mentioned, listing people who don't have an income themselves in your list of people
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Why?
I used to think much that way. A seminal moment for me was after one particular week at my summer job in my college days. It had been an especially busy week at work and I had racked up enough hours to earn my highest weekly gross pay to date at the time, $401 and change. Boy was I thrilled when I saw that, until I read further and saw my net pay: $301 and c
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It's irresponsible to expect someone who earns something like [x dollars] a month by doing [whatever kinds of] jobs for [whomever] to pay any taxes.
I like how you managed to take my own words, and then turn it into a perfect example of a strawman fallacy. Why even mark it as a quote?
The specifics in this case are extremely important. So, why should a person who only makes $60 a month doing odd jobs for friends and family not pay taxes? Well, under your "hard-nosed" version, it would be required that children would have to pay taxes on their allowances. ("Sorry Johnny, withholding for FICA!") It would also be required that someone who earns even $1 to r
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The "odd jobs" part, like your other choice of specifics in that example, was your (subconsciously, maybe) trying to downplay the significance, for taxation purposes, of certain incomes, without actually having made an argument why. I would agree that enforcement would be problematic, but: 1) I was speaking about the principal of it, and 2) enforcement already currently is problematic. And just because we label some income as "gifts", well it's still income to someone (whether "earned" or not). I define fai
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I define fairness by consistency, and it is this POV that I'm (predictably, regrettably) griping from.
So, you treat all homicides the same? It doesn't matter that he was trying to kill you, we have to apply the laws the same for everyone regardless of circumstances surrounding the situation, so even though you killed him to save your life, we're giving you the death penalty the same as this mass murderer.
Sounds like a horrible system to me. To me, fairness is judged by appropriateness of applicability to circumstances and that the circumstances determine the final result.
I note that you completely neglected
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>> I define fairness by consistency, [...]
>
> So, you treat all homicides the same?
No, just as I wouldn't treat all taxes the same. I think you've a mismatch in levels of categorization. I would treat all involuntary manslaughters the same. As I would treat all federal income taxes the same.
> I note that you completely neglected my comment that your system will tax allowances...
True fairness has far-reaching consequences. It's my view that if we don't like many of those, then we should rethink
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>> I define fairness by consistency, [...]
>
> So, you treat all homicides the same?
No, just as I wouldn't treat all taxes the same. I think you've a mismatch in levels of categorization. I would treat all involuntary manslaughters the same. As I would treat all federal income taxes the same.
You're splitting arbitrary hairs here to benefit your own position. What makes involuntary manslaughter different from 1st degree murder? I mean, they both killed a person, right? Of course the answer is hideously stupid, and I know what the difference is.
However, how can you recognize that difference, yet fail to recognize the difference between income from employment and income from friends/family? How can you fail to recognize earned income from gifted income? How can you fail to recognize all the detail
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I guess people are fated to always be at each others' throats. Being able to distinguish between things is a separate issue from being justified in treating them differently. But what's justifiable ultimately boils down to the subjective.
For example you might think higher earners should be taxed more, and might have reasons for this that to me would not be reason at all. As well I might think people who are farther Left should be taxed more, and might have reasons for this that to you would not be reason at
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Which I suppose was the point I was trying to get you to admit, that your idea that all income should be treated identically is subjective, and the delineations we draw around killing other humans is as well.
You are kind of missing the point though, in that the tax code is generally treated equally under the law. You may be upset that the law does not match your personal and subjective point of view of what is fair, yet the law as written still equally applies to all of us.
moof (Score:1)
It's not a myth if it's not something that's even asserted. At least I've only ever heard the "half of all Americans pay no taxes" always in the context of/on the topic (under discussion) of federal income taxes. It apparently *is* true, from the Tax Policy Center quote in that first linked article, that on average (across categories) more than half of American "tax units" (households?) pay no income tax. And that's a travesty.
Your two sources are obviously r
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Most Oregonians don't pay sales tax.....