They are trying to turn our country upside down

[Laura PourMeADrink]

The origins of income tax in our country were based on an ability to pay.

This is the only way a country can have the money to support social services and a social safety net for those
with less.

Our opposition wants to change that very formula. Keeping taxes on the wealthy too low, with hopes of getting
them even lower will only make the gap between rich and poor worse.

With the advent of instant business news, companies are under second-by-second scrutiny and tremendous pressure
to keep earnings growing. And what have they cut to do this? employee benefits and wage increases that once
helped to provide for adequate retirement and health care.

What will this country become, if these trends continue and Republicans take over?

[Warpy]

1. It will become a country nobody wants to live in

and anyone who has the means to leave (either youth or wealth that hasn't been stolen yet) is going to leave.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. But, oddly enough, it seems that there are many, many people on

the right who want it that way...and I don't mean the rich who are benefiting. I met someone the
other day who actually said "Man, if Texas does secede, I'd be the first one to move there."

It strikes me that we have become so divided that we have become in theory two separate countries. Too
bad the two sides weren't concentrated exactly half and half geographically...it wouldn't be hard to
guess which one would be more happy and prosperous once again working for companies that truly cared
about their well being. Which one would be cleaner and greener. Which one would spend less on war.

[surrealAmerican]

11. It's very short-sighted of them.

They never seem to understand that, within a very few years, the system would become unbearable and collapse.

By the way, you probably mean "secede", not "succeed". Texas will only succeed if they take steps to become more equitable, otherwise, ultimately they fail.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

12. thanks. I agree totally...can't believe they don't worry more about

what their lives will be like when they try and retire.

Funny you should say that about Texas - just reading how they expect the financial status to
downturn in the year before the election...their unemployment rate will rise when there are
not enough jobs for the new residents. BTW, don't understand why people are moving to TX
anyway...

[NNN0LHI]

2. Workers who make our imported stuff don't contribute to our social services and a social safety net

Been trying to explain that to people for decades to no avail.

Don

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. Why do you think this situation is so hard to change? Obama

railed about foreign workers and imports during his election. Say, giving him the benefit of the doubt, that he meant
it and had good intentions, he has done nothing to improve the situation.

My "business-oriented" friend says....that the public would be hurt more if we imposed restrictions on foreign workers or bigger tariffs on goods produced abroad. All of a sudden the Walmart item will cost twice as much.

[NNN0LHI]

13. Obama was just a kid when this began effecting my job negatively

Be kind of hard for me to blame it on him now.

Don

[Laura PourMeADrink]

15. Oh, I know...no blame...just wondering why we can't "tariff up"

It's the one thing I agree with when listening to Trump. forgetting the messenger for a moment, Trump says that in China they are
all laughing at us...at the ease and low cost of selling their products here. He
says he goes out with them when they come to the US...he doesn't drink but likes to hear what they all say when drunk...and he
says they say we are very stupid.

[xxqqqzme]

3. What will this country become?

Look around. 'Become' has happened.

[RKP5637]

4. It will be a hollowed out country full of very illiterate people ravaging

the land for survival. Those with extreme wealth will live in fortressed cities. Many that are able will leave for far better countries.

It will take decades for America to rebuild, other nations are moving past America, and depending on TPTB in future times, America could become a fascist police state to preserve the status quo for those of wealth.

Any concept of fairness and for the good of all will be a faded memory in America. The MIC also might start bombing the hell out of more countries as they will be seen as a threat.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. MIC? The very illiterate people will also be toothless - and I predict

that will happen sooner rather than later. At $600 for two filings.

[HereSince1628]

5. Yes. Moreover, the country is listing badly.

The question our future hangs on is plain enough--Is there enough ballast in our national identity to bring it upright?

There seems to be no certain answer.

[RKP5637]

9. What you said sums it up well, "Is there enough ballast in our national identity to bring it

upright?" At one time I thought it was a passing storm, but now we've taken on so much water and leaking so badly I'm beginning to wonder if there is enough ballast.

[kenny blankenship]

10. A graduated income tax should be thought of as a permanent tax break for middle & working classes

A flattening, or completely flat income, tax is a sign that the Democratic Party is dead and gone. Same with dismantling Social Security by restricting benefits & eligibility. A perverted income tax, under which billionaires pay a rate lower than their secretaries, is a sign of a corrupted, powerless and ineffectual Democratic Party, well on its way to the shit pile of History.

A flat tax on income limits the rate that richer classes pay and gifts them with a permanent tax ceiling, by lowering their rate to the same rate that a poor worker could afford to pay: in other words, very little. A flat tax is nothing more than a gift or tribute paid to the rich and a giant permanent fuck you to everyone else. A poor worker simply cannot part with more than a small fraction of his or her income. With very little revenue coming into the IRS, this country could then only afford very little in the way of government services and protections, or else its external debt would explode - even more than it has. All manner of protections and support that make life in the US liveable for a majority of its citizens would disappear under a flat(tened) tax, and the rate at which society crumbles into 3rd world poverty and degradation would gallop away from us, in a vicious feedback loop, beyond anyone's ability to retrieve or repair.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

14. You are absolutely right

the flat tax proponents I have heard are throwing out a 15% figure for a flat tax program. Screwed.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2010/09/23/the-very-rich-are-different-they-pay-a-lower-tax-rate/


As I point out in a story in the new Forbes 400 issue, thanks to the 15% tax rate on long term capital gains, the 400 highest earners pay a lower effective federal income tax rate than ordinary rich folks. In 2007 (the last year the IRS has published data for) the 400 derived two thirds of their average adjusted gross income of $345 million from capital gains and paid an average effective rate of just 16.6%. Taxpayers earning $1 million to $5 million, who get more of their income from salary and other “ordinary” income taxed at a top 35% rate, paid an effective tax rate of 24%.