Why not tax the Rich?

It's an honest question. The middle class is being taxed into extinction. Our House of Reps just passed a 2.7 trillion dollar budget. Where will the money come from?

I want to hear your ideas.

My best advice is for you to have LOTS of children so the tax burden gets spread wider. Of course, we could always declare national bankruptcy and write it all off.

Taxes will never be fair because you and I can't lobby with the same effect that the rich can. Poor people don't get elected to national offices. Rich people (or soon to be ones) make the laws.

See my 'quote' below? And I'm an optimist!

What's taxing fairly?
Should it be everyone pays the same % of their income?
Or should it be that the impoverished pay near nothing, the middle with more to spare pay more and the obscenely rich pay even more (pay not just more, but a higher proportion)?

Fair needs defining, frankly, I think its subjective and therefore is impossible to reach.

The rich are taxed. Bush's tax cut reduced the federal tax on the rich from 39% to 35%. I am not rich, but get taxed at 25% and the bottom 50% of the people (income wise), basically, do not pay taxes. I would love to see a flat tax. If this isn't taxing the rich, I don't know what is. Put in perspective, the average American works till April paying off taxes, France and Germany work till June, and Denmark works until August. So, we are not as bad as Europe.

Eventuallly, somehow, we all have to pay. But my view on it is that we are a captitalist nation. The ones who should pay the most taxes are the ones taking the most advantage of a capitalist system. Not just the rich, but the corporations also (seeing that they have been granted citizenship). Our country provides them with roads and security and many other things that make it possible for them to succeed; they should pay for it. However, they will only share that burdon unto the consumer. So really, we all pay. But, I think that would be the fairest way to do it and there would be less confusion about who owes what.

[The ones who should pay the most taxes are the ones taking the most advantage of a capitalist system.]

OKkid, you're right on. What everyone doesn't seem to get, is that when the price of living goes up, who can't afford it. The rich get richer because of it, while we the poor have to somehow make ends meet. The rich whine about the taxes that they pay, but at the same time they're off buying another Mercedes-Benz. Ever hear of the Marie Antionette line, "Let them eat cake".? You know what happened to Marie. I hope it doesn't come to that.

Taxing by percentage is already taxing the rich more then poor.
Why should I pay 100$ tax, this lazy shmo only pays 50$ because he works half as much as me?

I'm actually for taxing the rich more, because our capitalist societies do not present opportunities fairly.
The very poor should not be taxed because :
- they have trouble with basic necessities
- they've not got much money to take anyway

The obscenely wealthy should be taxed because :
- the obscenely wealthy are often born into it, its not like were taking away their hard work
- the obscenely wealthy can spare it

After that, the question becomes how poor should you be before being exempt of taxes and how rich you need to be before being considered 'rich enough'.

"price of living goes up, who can't afford it. The rich get richer because of it, while we the poor have to somehow make ends meet. The rich whine about the taxes that they pay, but at the same time they're off buying another Mercedes-Benz.".

But what do they do with the rest of the money. They invest it creating more jobs. Tax them more and they will still buy their Mercedes, they just won't have as much to invest. Who suffers from this. Working Americans. Tax them more, they will move out of the country like so many have done so far.

You have all made good points.

[But really, what are tax dollars used for? Maintaining the roads and infrastructure or providing for those that cannot provide for it themselves?]

Good question. How much of our tax dollars actually end up in the hands of the poor? I heard its about 30%. Of that, I think 50% went towards Medi-care. Anyone want to deny an elderly and/or poor person health care?

So what about the other 70%. If it doesn't go to the poor, who does it go to? Highway projects maybe, but definitely not infrastructure. Our cities are working on antiquated sewer and water systems.

If anyone can present a breakdown of exactly where our taxes go I'd be grateful. I think before we raise anyones taxes this should be addressed.

"Who has the right to state that anyone has reached a point where "society" deems them rich enough and attempt to limit their expansion based on this? That is a lack of freedom."
The person with that right is our democracy. Lets take a concrete example. Its the 1930s, the Great Depression has hit, unemployment is clocking at 20%. Many people are below the poverty line, children are malnourished.
Are we going to let the rich stay that way because they're lucky?

"To generalize that most rich people were born into it is firstly incorrect, and secondly if they are indeed born into it that is their luck, and society has no right to punish them for it."
Its not punishment, its equalizing. Just as I believe people should receive compensation if a random (unpredictable) natural disaster/disease afflicts them.
If I need surgery to repair my arm after a freak accident, shouldn't I be entitled to some help?

We are a civilized society, we should as far as is practical attempt to reduce arbitrary inequalities.

I'm all for free market capitalism, in fact, I find the act of striking disgusting and I am for limiting worker's so called 'rights' as much as possible. However, I also think that fairness is extremely important to the legitimacy of capitalism.
And it simply isn't fair for people born into poverty to have to pay as much taxes as those born into wealth.

The question is, how much more do you pay when you are a X amount richer?
You've answered that question by proportinality. Why is proportion fair? By your reasoning, the most fair (not dependent on wealth) would be each person pays the exact same amount.

I wrote a poem about a man who had 3 jobs, one wife and 3 kids who couldn't offord rent after it had been raised on him for the second time, because the rich had to get richer. He had to move back to upper state new york where he could offord to live. True story. He works 10 to 12 hours 6 to seven days a week while the rich man might only work 7 hours a day 5 days week. Education isn't cheap, anyone who has taken the time and made the sacrifice should reap the benifit. But since the Reagan adminstration we are seeing an ever greater devide between rich and poor.

But the debt that we have emassed since Vietnam cannot all be paid off by the rich. If you was to ask the rich to pay off a big chunk of it, they'd just move to another country and refuse to spend their money here. Unfortunately this is a burdon of the middle class, always has been, always will be. It would be beneficial to both the government and the Captialists to ensure that no more middle class fall into the ranks of the poor. This however will not be done unless the government enforces it. We're just not seeing that right now. We have returned to the Reagan years with an even greater furrer. Tax credits are awarded to the rich while spending greatly increases, if this continues we will break the camals back.

Everyone who paid federal taxes gets back money from the tax cut. I get an extra 150 bucks a month more because of it. It is not just the rich. I do not believe there is a bigger divide between the rich and poor nor the disappearance of the middle class.

I guess I wasn't so lucky, because I had to pay 600 at the end of the year.

[I do not believe there is a bigger divide between the rich and poor nor the disappearance of the middle class.]

Are you kidding me? In the time of your childhood how many billionaires were there? How many millionaires are there now versus the number of working poor? You have got to stop taking Hanity's word on everything and listen to any statistic ever produced on the subject. The middle class has shrunken percentage points compared to the lower and higher income brackets.

Back to the subject of taxes.
Here's an example: My Supervisor pulled in a gross income of $175K last year, while I made $75K. After all was said and done we paid the same amount of taxes. How do I know? He told me what his final tax bill was. When I inquired as to how this could be, he said "It takes money to avoid paying more money." I understood his point, but is this fair?

Everyone should pay the same amount of taxes on the same amount of income. Set a curve that determines the amount of tax for a given income level - say a straight line from the lower left corner to the upper right corner. Put the incomes on the bottom and pick a point. A rich person would pay the same amount of tax on $100 that I do. But because I only make $100 my liability ends. Then the rich guy pays the additional tax on the additional money he makes. Equal percentages on equal income. NO DEDUCTIONS. NONE. What I don't want is for the rich to pay $50 on $100 income while I pay $10 on the same $100. But, they need to pay proportionately more tax on the income as it goes up and up. One line. Equal taxes on equal income.