Once again, we are learning that the rich in this country are parasites: They reap the benefits of being Americans, become wealthy, but they pay nothing approaching their fair share int axes. They pay less of a percentage of their income in taxes than a Wal-Mart worker. In many cases, they pay less taxes than a burger-flipper.
ProPublica has the story.
It's not unusual for the ultra-rich to pay less then a tenth of a percent of their income in taxes. In some years, by their financial shenanigans, they'll make billions of dollars and pay not a penny of taxes.
Let's be clear: This is not a bug in the tax code. This is a feature. The rich have pretty much bought the politicians who enacted the changes to the tax code to make it possible for them to get richer on the backs of the wage-earning schlubs who actually pay taxes and who have little access to the tax breaks that the rich do.
I could snark about the fact that there is an entire political party devoted to fucking over workers and making the rich richer, but it goes beyond that. Two presidental administrations ago, we had an attorney general whose mission in life was to protect the greedheads who crashed the economy in 2008. And he did just that, for other than some low-level scumbags, none of the real bandits spent a minute in a courtroom.
My belief is that a democracy cannot survive when the rich are paying nowhere near their fair share of taxes.
Jamaican Me Crazy
1 hour ago
8 comments:
But you're forgetting about that trickle down thingy, or how the rich reinvest their tax savings to generate jobs for those of lesser means. If you don't understand by now, I can't explain it to you. Nor can anyone else explain it. -sarcasm off-
Leeches and parasites.
Dale
Like DT said, the rich are rich for reasons. God blessed the rich and it's only right for government to protect the source of all goodness against the unworthy poors. There is nothing we can do about it. It's the economy, stupid poors. If our 1% masters paid taxes they would not be rich anymore and no jobs would be created and us poors would no longer be trickled upon by our corporate masters. Remember, people exist to serve the economy under our superior rich overlords. That's god's plan and it's going well. If you change a thing it's communism all the way down.
It's not only about taxes, and it's not only about the rich. It's about unaccountability. Taxes are not resented for their economic impact, but as indicia of accountability. There is no such thing as greed. No one wants anything for themselves, but only to harm others. Until you understand that, you understand nothing.
While I have no personal experience I have heard done right they taste like bacon.
Have mixed feelings about Bezos and his Bro going into space: I've long held that without private industry the government not gonna' take us anywhere, but damn would I smile if they ended up near-earth orbital debris ...
I ran numbers 10 years back, and the median family paid something like 25% of their income in various taxes.
Your point that the oligarchy excludes themselves from this is spot on. And the oligarchy is bi-partisan: there's essentially no difference between the Kenedys and the Bushes here.
FW >>>Taxes are not resented for their economic impact, but as indicia of accountability.<<<
There in lies the truth. There has been talk of the deep state... IF
there is any truth in that, those people that can get away with things
are the so called deep state. Those are the one that can actually hire
the best lawyers and influence those in office by proving the needed
funds to maintain winning campaign.
What is interesting is that the people do not believe in a party only
the one they fund to get more money via either side.
Eck!
Borepatch, I seem to recall from some years back, a study that postulated if everyone paid a flat rate of ~12%, there would be enough to zero out the deficit in 5 years. That would infer that no new programs would be enacted once politicians realized they could spend more on their pet projects.
Another problem I saw with that hypothesis is that 12% from poor people would cripple them much more so than the rich. Therefore setting an arbitrary number for exemption purposes would lead to other groups wanting exemptions, triggering a boatload of specialized groups wanting to 'get theirs'.
Some things would never change.
Dale
Jobs aren't created out of thin air by the low tax enabled largesse of the very wealthy, they are created when the demand for goods and services in the market exceeds the ability of the current workforce to provide them.
No rich person will ever hire anyone because their taxes are cut.
They hire them in order for their business to make more money.
When I was a child, our tax structure was designed to confiscate excessive profits unless the business owner plowed them back into the business that reaped them.
You want to keep all of that money? Build another factory, or replace the aging equipment in the one you have. Put that capital back to work in the economy or we'll do it for you.
Then came the goddamn Reagan revolution.
Finally disposing of the Reagan revolution is at the root of our slim chance at retaining our republic as a republic. Oligarchy favors autocracy, and we are well on the way to both.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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