The coming financial crisis

[fansince61]

Income tax is tiered, but every other tax (alcohol, cigarette, sales, property, etc) is the same for everyone.

That means that people with lower incomes pay a significantly higher % of their income on the 'other' taxes. As such, almost all western countries have a 'progressive' income tax that is tiered so that lower income people pay less while higher income people pay more in order to provide fairness.

The problem is that most people only think about income taxes when the topic comes up. They completely ignore the fact that the government brings in money from all sorts of other taxes that are not so fairly distributed.

So, the lower 50% of tax payers should get alcohol and cigarettes for free?

[rjs246]

Those aren't tax brackets, they're 'quintiles' and you obviously didn't read the article.

Either way, the entire US tax code should be torn up.

[rjs246]

Income tax is tiered, but every other tax (alcohol, cigarette, sales, property, etc) is the same for everyone.

That means that people with lower incomes pay a significantly higher % of their income on the 'other' taxes. As such, almost all western countries have a 'progressive' income tax that is tiered so that lower income people pay less while higher income people pay more in order to provide fairness.

The problem is that most people only think about income taxes when the topic comes up. They completely ignore the fact that the government brings in money from all sorts of other taxes that are not so fairly distributed.

So, the lower 50% of tax payers should get alcohol and cigarettes for free?

Is that really what you took from that?

[fansince61]

Income tax is tiered, but every other tax (alcohol, cigarette, sales, property, etc) is the same for everyone.

That means that people with lower incomes pay a significantly higher % of their income on the 'other' taxes. As such, almost all western countries have a 'progressive' income tax that is tiered so that lower income people pay less while higher income people pay more in order to provide fairness.

The problem is that most people only think about income taxes when the topic comes up. They completely ignore the fact that the government brings in money from all sorts of other taxes that are not so fairly distributed.

So, the lower 50% of tax payers should get alcohol and cigarettes for free?

Is that really what you took from that?

No.  I'd like to see a new tax sustem to but there are too many "winners" with the current system (Congress loves to change the tax code for donations )

[Sgt PSN]

Income tax is tiered, but every other tax (alcohol, cigarette, sales, property, etc) is the same for everyone.

That means that people with lower incomes pay a significantly higher % of their income on the 'other' taxes. As such, almost all western countries have a 'progressive' income tax that is tiered so that lower income people pay less while higher income people pay more in order to provide fairness.

The problem is that most people only think about income taxes when the topic comes up. They completely ignore the fact that the government brings in money from all sorts of other taxes that are not so fairly distributed.

So, the lower 50% of tax payers should get alcohol and cigarettes for free?

i fall in the lower 50% of tax payers.  

i spend a lot of money on smokes and bourbon.

you have my full attention.  

[ice grillin you]

the winners have always been and always will be rich white people

ask the indians

hopefully barry can at least inch it a little in the other direction

[rjs246]

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, ladies and gentlemen.

It's all sunshine and bunnies with this guy, isn't it?

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, ladies and gentlemen.

It's all sunshine and bunnies with this guy, isn't it?

Haha, indeed.  Rays of hope everywhere!

[Seabiscuit36]

I cant wait to see the Stress test results

[rjs246]

Predictably, TARP funds have resulted in a clusterfarg criminal cases against certain recipients.

This ought to be interesting...

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Freddie Mac CFO offs himself

[SD_Eagle5]

Following in the footsteps of J. Clifford Baxter

[fansince61]

Freddie Mac CFO offs himself

Maybe "they" threatened his family if "they" thought he'd testify

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Can someone please explain refusal to allow banks to pay TARP money back and/or preferred to common stock conversions?

[Diomedes]

The U.S. banking system is a confidence game.  For the same reason the government forced healthy banks to take TARP money, they will prevent healthy banks from paying it back quickly: the stigmatization that would attend either scenario might corrode confidence to such a degree that it would cause the whole banking scam to collapse like a deck of cards.

That's the reasoning anyway, not that I buy it.