Extending the Payroll Tax Cut

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Danzig

the top 1% controls about 42% of the money, perhaps they should pay 42% of the taxes as well. they can certainly afford it!
that's not coveting, i'm certainly not going to get a penny of it.

If taxes are to be paid on what one 'controls' then yes that would seem logical. And that may be a way to go. But then again we'd tax foundations, what stock and retirement portfolios one might have equity in home(s), commercial real estate and what businesses are worth. Not too business or investment friendly though. And would be a shame to tax two guys who work side by side and earn the same wages 50K and 5K because the guy taxed 5K had a few DUI's and made a couple of bad investments, has no home or retirement savings while the other guy saved as much as he could, worked a second job and invested in rental properties in lieu of lawyer fees and fines.

Meanwhile we tax by earned Adjusted Gross Income and while the top 1% earn 17 percent of all income they pay 37% of all taxes. So should their taxes be reduced by over half?

[Danzig]

the tax code needs revisiting. things need to be changed. people talk about job creation; that should be the thing that gets you the biggest deduction, not a donation to an art museum for example. the more people working, and getting paid a good wage, the better off everyone and everything is.

and i'd love to see my retirement grow to the point i'm in the 1%. yeah, not holding my breath.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Danzig

and i'd love to see my retirement grow to the point i'm in the 1%. yeah, not holding my breath.

Life 40-70 years ago: You worked, you saved, you retired. Your personal savings paid 5% interest, you got a pension from your company, and you got Social Security and Medicare. Three pillars of retirement: savings, pension, SS. Your house was paid off and increased in value over the years, you sold it when you were very old to pay for the nursing home care.

Life now: You worked. The three pillars that created a middle class are gone. Savings accounts pay 0.25%. Your real income has not increased, it has fallen precipitously over the past 40 years - you work longer hours, but make less in "real" money. Companies no longer give pensions. Republicans want to take away your Social Security and give that money to Wall Street to gamble with, in spite of the fact they've lost 1/3 or more of the value in private retirement accounts over the past 10 years. Your house is underwater. Republicans also want to take away your Medicare.

Whose fault is this? That 90% of Americans don't control the wealth of this country? That there is hardly a middle class left? According to the Republicans, it's the fault of firefighters, policemen, and kindergarten teachers.

Wake up, America. We live in a plutocracy. Herman Cain is a failed restaurant lobbyist owned by the Koch brothers. Newt Gingrich is the poster boy for Washington Insider Lobbyist who will sell his soul for a dollar and only cares about the rich, and blames the poor for being poor. Bachmann, Santorum and Perry trade on religious fear and singularity, and hate of "gays" and "brown people" and "Muslims"

And no, I am not exempting guilty Democrats from the selfsame sins.