Tax the rich!!!

[MRT144]

I was reading an article from seattle weekly a few weeks or possibly months ago ( i was in my career development class) and it said that during the eisenhower admin, the rich, the top 1% of earners were taxed nearly 90%, 70% under Kennedy, and it has decreased over time. Under Reagan it was 28%.

Now pardon me if im wrong but was it such a big problem to tax the rich this much in that time? what makes now so different from then other than, the rich run the politics of this country?

[Ming]

I'd like to see proof that those figures are correct. They sure don't sound right to me...

[KrazyHorse]

Those sound like marginal tax rates.

[Japher]

The development of economic policy, industries, and world economics/politics made lower taxes for the rich needed to encourage growth.

[KrazyHorse]

Bull****.

[David Floyd]

I know that in WW2, the top tax rate was around 93%. Don't have a source, just something I picked up somewhere.

As to why it's a problem, it should be obvious - it's hardly fair (not to mention moral) to take 90%+ of the money one earns, no matter how much they earn. It's even more unfair to give that money away for free to those who don't earn it. It's basically the wealth-transfer program - taking wealth from those who earned it and giving it to those who didn't.

[Japher]

yeah, but...

[DRoseDARs]

But the wealthiest do so much for this country! Their contributions to society are beyond measure! Of course they deserve to pay the least in taxes.



That is how it works here in Crazy World, isn't it?

[rah]

It's hard to make a straight up comparison because you don't know what loopholes have been eliminated since.

[DRoseDARs]

AEROSMITH - Eat The Rich

Well I woke up this morning
On the wrong side of the bed
And how I got to thinkin'
About all those things you said
About ordinary people
And how they make you sick
And if callin' names kicks back on you
Then I hope this does the trick

'Cause I'm a sick of your complainin'
About how many bills
And I'm sick of all your b*tchin'
'Bout your poodles and your pills
And I just can't see no humour
About your way of life
And I think I can do more for you
With this here fork and knife

[Chorus:]
Eat the Rich: there's only one thing they're good for
Eat the Rich: take one bite now - come back for more
Eat the Rich: I gotta get this off my chest
Eat the Rich: take one bite now, spit out the rest

So I called up my head shrinker
And I told him what I'd done
Said you'd best go on a diet
Yeah I hope you have some fun
And a don't go burst a bubble
On the rich folks who get rude
'Cause you won't get in no trouble
When you eats that kinda food
Now their smokin' up the junk bonds
And then they go get stiff
And they're dancin' in the yacht club
With Muff and Uncle Biff
But there's one good thing that happens
When you toss your pearls to swine
Their attitudes may taste like sh*t
But go real good with wine
[Chorus]

Wake up kid, it's half past your youth
Ain't nothin' really changes but the date
You a grand slammer, but you no Babe Ruth
You gotta learn how to relate
Or you'll be swingin' from the pearly gate
Now you got all the answers, low and behold
You got the right key baby but the wrong key ho, yo

Believe in all the good things
That money just can't buy
Then you won't get no belly ache
From eatin' humble pie
I believe in rags to riches
Your inheritence won't last
So take your Grey Poupon my friend
And shove it up your ass!
[Chorus]

Eat the Rich: there's only one thing they're good for
Eat the Rich: take one bite now - come back for more
Eat the Rich: don't stop me now I'm goin' crazy
Eat the Rich: that's my idea of a good time baby

[General Ludd]

We should take a note from the incans and collect lice for tax.

[Ming]

Ahhh... after a few searches, I now see where those figures are coming from. They are probably refering to the "marginal tax rate" (as KrazyHorse pointed out) which were indeed that high. However, from one of the sites I looked at...

The marginal tax rate is the rate on the last dollar of income earned. This is very different from the average tax rate, which is the total taxes paid as a percentage of total income earned. The seemingly arcane topic of marginal tax rates became the central theme of a revolution in economic policy that swept the globe in the eighties.

And...

In the United States the concept of marginal tax rates is most familiar as tax brackets. Rapid inflation in the seventies pushed many skilled working couples up into the 50 percent tax bracket (then the highest rate on labor income). That did not mean that all of their income was taxed at a 50 percent rate. Instead, the first ten thousand dollars or so might be taxed at a 12 percent rate, the next ten thousand at a higher rate, and so on. Once the 50 percent bracket was reached, though, the federal government really did expect to collect half of any additional earnings. Average federal income taxes—taxes divided by income—have rarely been much more than 25 percent even for the superrich, even when (in the fifties) marginal tax brackets rose as high as 90 percent.

So while the "marginal tax rate" has been lowered a ton over the years... the actual average tax rate really hasn't.

[MRT144]

http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php

david, i know youre a libertarian and such, and as such really dont believe that anyone who cant make it shouldnt, but...

wouldnt an increase tax on the rich benefit the country a lot more? im trying to be realistic and trying to think of ways to benefit the working and service class as much as possible.

now i know that redistribution of wealth through services to the underclass isnt your idea of fair, but i want to live in a world where people can at least have health care if they need it, make a wage where they can live comfortably, and where the rich wont be beaten to death 50 years from now because things have gotten so ****ed

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by rah
It's hard to make a straight up comparison because you don't know what loopholes have been eliminated since.

We know that significant loopholes were closed when the taxe rates were lowered. I don't know the specific loopholes though.

[KrazyHorse]

Ming: the problem with that is that it means more money is being collected at the expense of the middle class and less from the truly wealthy.

Tax bracket creep affects those with middle-range incomes more strongly than it does those with high incomes (not in absolute dollars but in percentage of gross income), whereas dropping the highest marginal tax rate helps those with highest incomes most (both in absolute dollars and as a percentage of gross income).