Losing the war on ineqUality

[igor555]

koch make sense???

http://bloom.bg/2ggLMvM

[1recho]

^ Consumption taxes are regressive, taxes on assets (property, estate etc) are progressive.

A 20% sales tax will kill the poor people’s wallets and the economy as a whole. No biggie.

[Ghibli]

[video:https://youtu.be/Qi8clPrg7kc]

[BValGuy]

@Black_Swan

@bchad

@Black_Swan

@Palantir

One solution is taxing investment income at the top marginal tax rate. The rich get away with paying a lower rate than everybody else.

Been saying this for years on this forum. Even if you equated CG tax to base rate income tax, you could significantly lower the income tax as a result. The top percentile’s income is all CG, so that while Single Mom Sue with two kids works three jobs and pays 35%, some LA kid with generational wealth will pay 15%. But change will never happen because politicians tell the masses "we’re all in this together and we don’t want the government in our pocketbook of money we’ve already earned!"and everyone’s stupid enough to believe it.

Yeah. I’ve been thinking that politicians find it’s important to have the middle class paying more taxes, because that’s how you get them on board to support further tax cuts to the top. Every time, it seems to be “we’re going to lower middle class taxes by a percent or two, and make a ton of stuff except for ‘job creators’.” If you cut middle class tax rates, you wouldn’t have as much support for tax cuts in general, so it’s important not to cut them too much.

I agree that it’s just my cynical mind talking, but powerful people are often cynical, so it helps to think like them.

It’s simpler than that. Model out too sets of people, one with a 15% tax rate and one with a 35% tax rate over 30 years. Report back.

While I don’t disagree with the notion of higher income individuals paying higher taxes, we also need to use real numbers for there to be meaningful discussion. Based on the 2016 tax brackets (http://taxfoundation.org/article/2016-tax-brackets) your example of a single mom paying 35% and needing to work 3 jobs to support her kids is simply incorrect. Her effective tax rate is very likely similar, or even lower, than the 15% tax rate being enjoyed by the rich heiress.

[bchad]

Interesting quantitative stats here:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/opinion/the-american-dream-quantified-at-last.html

[brain_wash_your_face]

@BValGuy

While I don’t disagree with the notion of higher income individuals paying higher taxes, we also need to use real numbers for there to be meaningful discussion. Based on the 2016 tax brackets (http://taxfoundation.org/article/2016-tax-brackets) your example of a single mom paying 35% and needing to work 3 jobs to support her kids is simply incorrect. Her effective tax rate is very likely similar, or even lower, than the 15% tax rate being enjoyed by the rich heiress.

Agree that you need to deal in real numbers, and I don’t think most people working three jobs are making over 413k per year (35% bracket). You have to take into account all taxes, state and local, though, because many income state and local income taxes start at $0 earned. Below is the top marginal dividend tax for combined Federal and state, assuming at 23.8% Federal rate .