Christianity Today Op Ed

[lilpixieofterror]

Especially because rich people won't just sit there and let the government take their money. Like when New York tried to close a budget hole by raising taxes on the wealthy. In response, the wealthy moved out of state taking their money with them, and the next year, the budget hole was even bigger.

Or how the federal government destroyed the US yacht industry. Sending thousands of workers to the unemployment line. What always amuses me about liberals is their assumptions that nobody changes their behavior based on government action.

[rogue06]

Especially because rich people won't just sit there and let the government take their money. Like when New York tried to close a budget hole by raising taxes on the wealthy. In response, the wealthy moved out of state taking their money with them, and the next year, the budget hole was even bigger.

Or how back in the 80s or 90s when the federal government decided to produce more revenue by placing luxury taxes on yachts being built in the U.S. along the Gulf coast (and maybe eastern Florida) which resulted in the companies relocating throughout the Carribean in more tax friendly nations. This also left a significant number of unemployed workers here in the U.S. after the companies left.

So in the end the government not only failed to increase revenues by imposing new taxes, they lost the revenue they had been getting. And to make it worse, they lost the income taxes being paid by the now unemployed workers -- many of who were now collecting unemployment.


ETA: I see that lpot ninja'd me. smiley fist shake.gif

[lilpixieofterror]

Or how back in the 80s or 90s when the federal government decided to produce more revenue by placing luxury taxes on yachts being built in the U.S. along the Gulf coast (and maybe eastern Florida) which resulted in the companies relocating throughout the Carribean in more tax friendly nations. This also left a significant number of unemployed workers here in the U.S. after the companies left.

So in the end the government not only failed to increase revenues by imposing new taxes, they lost the revenue they had been getting. And to make it worse, they lost the income taxes being paid by the now unemployed workers -- many of who were now collecting unemployment.


ETA: I see that lpot ninja'd me. [ATTACH=CONFIG]41757[/ATTACH]

[Cow Poke]

Well, that might be the perverted drama queen version...

I wanted to make it clear that the adjective 'perverted here was intended to modify the noun 'version' rather than the phrase 'drama queen'.

[Jaecp]

Ah, yes, the rich and powerful should be able to do whatever they want because making sure the law is applied evenly to everyone is too hard

[demi-conservative]

Ah, yes, the rich and powerful should be able to do whatever they want because making sure the law is applied evenly to everyone is too hard

Given that the 1% are in a much higher tax bracket, exploiting tax loopholes makes the effective tax rate more equal and 'even'.

[Jaecp]

Given that the 1% are in a much higher tax bracket, exploiting tax loopholes makes the effective tax rate more equal and 'even'.

😂😂😂

[lilpixieofterror]

Ah, yes, the rich and powerful should be able to do whatever they want because making sure the law is applied evenly to everyone is too hard

https://taxfoundation.org/summary-la...a-2018-update/

The rich pay the majority of our taxes already.

[Jaecp]

https://taxfoundation.org/summary-la...a-2018-update/

The rich pay the majority of our taxes already.

Nah, it's an accurate summary of your defeatist attitude, but you've never met a logical fallacy you couldn't misuse so meh

[Jaecp]

To anyone else,

The Panama papers were a huge deal and getting the world's richest people to actually pay their taxes is going to be an important part of fixing the mess the world's in

https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/

[Mountain Man]

There's much to be said about the flat tax. Same percentage across the board regardless of income. No deductions. No "refunds". Everybody wins/loses (depending on your perspective).

[lilpixieofterror]

Nah, it's an accurate summary of your defeatist attitude, but you've never met a logical fallacy you couldn't misuse so meh

[lilpixieofterror]

To anyone else,

The Panama papers were a huge deal and getting the world's richest people to actually pay their taxes is going to be an important part of fixing the mess the world's in

https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/

People on the 50% upper incomes, pay 97% of the income taxes.

[Jaecp]

There's much to be said about the flat tax. Same percentage across the board regardless of income. No deductions. No "refunds". Everybody wins/loses (depending on your perspective).

So long as capital can influence policy a flat tax will never end up benefiting you or I in the long run.

The better course of action is to, taking a peg out of the NRA's playbook, is to enforce the laws we have now. A lot of money is left on the table because the rich and powerful actively cheat the system for their own benefit and at the expense of both you and I, MM.

Even if there was a flat tax that worked as intended, that ends up just being a massive giveaway to the people that are already in a very good place while raising taxes on the people at the bottom of society. Progressive taxation is important because so long as democracy is for sale nobody should be rich enough to buy it outright.

[Mountain Man]

People on the 50% upper incomes, pay 97% of the income taxes.

And in the US, the top 10% pay 70% of all income taxes.