I wrote a comment with this title, but then decided that the subject deserves its own blog.
The current government has cut taxes time and time again. The idea is that if taxes are cut, the people will be more driven to spend. With 9/11, Iraq, and Katrina, this idea is not applicable to our time, when what tomorrow brings cannot be as certain as it was before 9/11 and before the war.
The national economy is at a deficit, and the current solution is to cut social programs right and left and to make life harder for people with already hard lives. Social security is about to be eradicated (and who knows what will happen to the SS taxes we the good workers paid.) Medicare and medicaid benefits are being cut significantly. Benefits for single mothers are being cut. To add money to the economy, the prime interest rate has skyrocketed to 8.25%, which means that college students must pay even more now for their already expensive colleges. I will not go into a list of all the programs hurt.
So, why not raise taxes? Low-income individuals and the elderly are both large groups in America. If their living standards raise with more money going to them (along with college students and other groups), they will give more back to the economy, despite the raised taxes. I am not saying that we should have a huge increase, but just enough to normalize the economy while making people feel comfortable about their spending and their financial security.
The situation is quite a bit more complicated than that, obviously. But pretty much, it can't hurt to raise taxes for the richest few percent. They have plenty to spare.
Common sense is as rare as genius. ~Emerson
want to fix a broken system?
make a nation wide sales tax.
This will utilize the illegals in this country in that they will have to buy stuff from somewhere!
They are not subject to income tax, because most of them work under the table.
If the US made a nation wide sales tax, more people would be subject to paying this tax, and the tax would eliminate the need to raise taxes or create new taxes...
and i vent...
-aved
Please, don't get me started on the Fair Tax Plan. I'll have to write a blog about this. First of all, if you take Econ class you'll know that income tax is a progressive tax and sales tax is a regressive tax. Progressive taxes are taxes where when your income increases, the proportion that you get taxed increases. Which is good becuase everyone should pay their fair share, that's why we have income tax. A regressive tax is one where the proportion you are taxed increases as your income decreases. That's right, a tax where more of your income is taxed the less you make.
Let's see why. Say you make $25,000 a year and you have to spend all your money to pay for all the things you need, like your food, car, house, insurance, etc. and you have no extra money left over. 100% of your income was taxed because you spent it all. Say you make $2 million a year and you spent $1 million dollars and had $1 million left that you saved/invested. Only 50% of your income was taxed.
Having a national sales tax and abolishing income tax puts the tax burden on the poor. So yeah, its a bad idea and the only people who support are rich.
Common sense is as rare as genius. ~Emerson
Please, don't get me started on my Econ class. Firstly, lets take for granted that you know what classes I take.
Lets keep this non personal :)
The way the tax system is set up now, every dollar gets taxed multiple times!
First, you have income tax, SS tax, State Tax and everything else that is listed on your pay stub. Thats just fine and dandy, until you realize that everytime you pump gax, that ALREADY taxed dollar gets taxed again. Then that dollar gets taxed YET AGAIN when the business files their taxes.
Its not an attack on what you...just on the theory that just because someone does well in this capitalist world means he should have to pay the government more. You tell me whats fair? Why not just equally distribute money between all classes and make everyone equal?
Then lets eliminate the idea of success and make all jobs equal. Then we can eliminate the entire monetary system and just barter for goods. Then we can turn over all of our possessions to the government because they know whats best and will definately do a better job of distrubuting everything fairly.
Then
Change our names to the Communist States of America.
All hail the CSA.
Except this theory wont work...
Don't let socialist lies confuse common sense...
-aved
Sorry, when I said "if you take econ class" I didn't mean "you" as in you, I meant "you" as in a person. And I'm not a socialist or a communist.
Common sense is as rare as genius. ~Emerson
Agreed. If you increase income taxes 500 dollars a person, and if you have about 100 mil. taxpayers (probably greater), the result is 50 billion, 2 times what we pay per year for Iraq. If you institute a national sales tax, the same result would not be achieved, because you are taxing the poor who do not pay income taxes, making them even harder to recover from their poverty.
Taxas?
why would anybody wanna declare war on Taxas? shoot, the Presidents from thar..
"I am Jack's complete lack of surprise."
With congress, especially democrats, in control taxes will always take a large hike. Also low taxes has helped to economy. The unemployment rate has dropped from 11% to 4% since the beginning of the Bush era.
And don't say we need to tax the rich more. The only reason they make so much is that they know that 40% of their income will be for taxes. So they do not need more taxes. We need a president with line veto power.
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God gave you a brain. America gave you a vote. Use them together and wisely.
Yeah I'm not too big on graduated income tax