Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: Reuters/Ipsos poll

[Ray From Cleveland]

I live where I do (in the south) because of taxes. In Illinois, a typical property in Gurney (this is not 90210 by any stretch - it is middle class) pays about $12,000 a year in property taxes. Meanwhile those that rent don't have to pay any. So if you have kids, you ought to rent in my opinion. In the south, that unfavorable tax treatment to those that own real estate is mitigated by taxing personal property such as automobiles. My taxes are about $3,000 yr on my house/property.

Not exactly, because rental price reflects the costs to upkeep the place. In other words, I recoup the taxes I pay for the schools from my tenants.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Sorry, but our taxation system never was fair. I never had any children, so I don't get that dependency deductions or tax credits.

Here, our schools are paid for by the city. The city tax is coupled with the county tax, and you get one bill. 60% of our property taxes are for our schools in my suburb. I don't have any children in the school system, and never have, and neither have any of my tenants.

The real problem with that is your tax bill is based on how much your property is worth. So the guy down the street with four kids in the school system is paying a lot less taxes than I am because his property is worth so much less than mine. Yet he has four kids in the school system. How is that fair?

How 'bout us home schoolers?

Same thing. Even worse if your children attend a private school, because then you are supporting the public school with your property tax, and paying the bill to the private school for your children's education. That's what happened to my sister.
She sent her kids to a religious school.

State's rights issue, what's the point?

Point is taxation has never been fair to everybody, and probably never will.

This is sort of like the way liberals argue against a free market by saying there's no such thing (because it isn't perfectly free). Are you saying, it's not fair, so we should just use it to push people around wily-nilly?

No, I'm saying if we are going to tackle what is unfair taxation, we have a list a mile long for that. As per earlier in the discussion, the top 20% of earners paid 87% of all collected income taxes in this country. Think that's fair? Of course not. Just look at the posts. People here are advocating for them paying even more.

 

[PoliticalChic]

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The idea of imposing a wealth tax on the richest Americans has elicited sharply divergent views across a spectrum of politicians, with President Donald Trump branding it socialist and progressive Democratic presidential contenders Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders prominently endorsing it.

snip

Among the 4,441 respondents to the poll, 64% strongly or somewhat agreed that “the very rich should contribute an extra share of their total wealth each year to support public programs” - the essence of a wealth tax. Results were similar across gender, race and household income. While support among Democrats was stronger, at 77%, a majority of Republicans, 53%, also agreed with the idea.

Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: Reuters/Ipsos poll

If this is true, then the experiment called the United States of America as we know it is done....

Because it’s phrased a “wealth tax.” Phrase it what it really is. “Socialism.”

And socialism is theft.

They use the bogus term 're-distribution' of wealth.

The money was never 'distributed'....it was earned.

Sure enough is “Chic.”
Capitalism: people strive for success.
Socialism: people strive for mediocrity.

"In the free market, every man, woman and child is scheming to find a better way to make a product or service that will make a fortune!"

 

[Questioner]

Basically, if someone told you that they could predict with 100% accuracy which horse would win every race, or which team would win every Superbowl, people would say they are lying. (Sure, some people make better predictions than others, but no one is "psychic").

So why people would believe any economic or business prediction which a person claims to know will work out that way with 100% certainty is beyond me... cognitive dissonance?

 

[Questioner]

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The idea of imposing a wealth tax on the richest Americans has elicited sharply divergent views across a spectrum of politicians, with President Donald Trump branding it socialist and progressive Democratic presidential contenders Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders prominently endorsing it.

snip

Among the 4,441 respondents to the poll, 64% strongly or somewhat agreed that “the very rich should contribute an extra share of their total wealth each year to support public programs” - the essence of a wealth tax. Results were similar across gender, race and household income. While support among Democrats was stronger, at 77%, a majority of Republicans, 53%, also agreed with the idea.

Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: Reuters/Ipsos poll

If this is true, then the experiment called the United States of America as we know it is done....

Because it’s phrased a “wealth tax.” Phrase it what it really is. “Socialism.”

And socialism is theft.

They use the bogus term 're-distribution' of wealth.

The money was never 'distributed'....it was earned.

Sure enough is “Chic.”
Capitalism: people strive for success.
Socialism: people strive for mediocrity.

"In the free market, every man, woman and child is scheming to find a better way to make a product or service that will make a fortune!"

If you think "everyone" is, that's extremely naïve; some are, some would rather just get high all the time.

Renowed entrepreneurs like Ben Franklin, Thomas Edision, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, are not "normal" people.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

You hate the lower middle to upper middle class, don't you. You also hate the rich, don't you. You only favor the poor. Fuck the rest of them.

I do not hate anyone. Why do you people always get triggered by logic and run off to some emotional fantasy land?

Because you are against those classes. You think they are getting way too good of a deal.

What constitutes "upper middle class"?

 

[PoliticalChic]

I live where I do (in the south) because of taxes. In Illinois, a typical property in Gurney (this is not 90210 by any stretch - it is middle class) pays about $12,000 a year in property taxes. Meanwhile those that rent don't have to pay any. So if you have kids, you ought to rent in my opinion. In the south, that unfavorable tax treatment to those that own real estate is mitigated by taxing personal property such as automobiles. My taxes are about $3,000 yr on my house/property.

I believe the max deduction for property tax, per the Trump bill, is $10,000

 

[PoliticalChic]

It still does not make it the government's responsibility to reward them for doing so. Why does someone deserve to pay less taxes just because they bought a house? Total bullshit.

Same with kids and paying for college by the way

Sorry, but our taxation system never was fair. I never had any children, so I don't get that dependency deductions or tax credits.

Here, our schools are paid for by the city. The city tax is coupled with the county tax, and you get one bill. 60% of our property taxes are for our schools in my suburb. I don't have any children in the school system, and never have, and neither have any of my tenants.

The real problem with that is your tax bill is based on how much your property is worth. So the guy down the street with four kids in the school system is paying a lot less taxes than I am because his property is worth so much less than mine. Yet he has four kids in the school system. How is that fair?

How 'bout us home schoolers?

Same thing. Even worse if your children attend a private school, because then you are supporting the public school with your property tax, and paying the bill to the private school for your children's education. That's what happened to my sister. She sent her kids to a religious school.

State's rights issue, what's the point?

Point is taxation has never been fair to everybody, and probably never will.

What should the maximum amount of taxes be.....outside of wartime?

And what do you suppose it is today....fed, state, sales, fees, total?

 

[dblack]

How 'bout us home schoolers?

Same thing. Even worse if your children attend a private school, because then you are supporting the public school with your property tax, and paying the bill to the private school for your children's education. That's what happened to my sister.
She sent her kids to a religious school.

State's rights issue, what's the point?

Point is taxation has never been fair to everybody, and probably never will.

This is sort of like the way liberals argue against a free market by saying there's no such thing (because it isn't perfectly free). Are you saying, it's not fair, so we should just use it to push people around wily-nilly?

No, I'm saying if we are going to tackle what is unfair taxation, we have a list a mile long for that. As per earlier in the discussion, the top 20% of earners paid 87% of all collected income taxes in this country. Think that's fair? Of course not. Just look at the posts. People here are advocating for them paying even more.

The relative fairness of all the tax incentives isn't my concern. It's the fact that government has used, and is using, the taxation power to radically increase its power over society. It lets them coerce behavior that they couldn't get away with via direct mandates. But if they dress it up as "free shit", the suckers fall for it. We're being herded around like sheep with all the carrots and sticks embodied in the tax code. Doesn't that bother you?

 

[Bush92]

If this is true, then the experiment called the United States of America as we know it is done....

Because it’s phrased a “wealth tax.” Phrase it what it really is. “Socialism.”

And socialism is theft.

They use the bogus term 're-distribution' of wealth.

The money was never 'distributed'....it was earned.

Sure enough is “Chic.”
Capitalism: people strive for success.
Socialism: people strive for mediocrity.

"In the free market, every man, woman and child is scheming to find a better way to make a product or service that will make a fortune!"

If you think "everyone" is, that's extremely naïve; some are, some would rather just get high all the time.

Renowed entrepreneurs like Ben Franklin, Thomas Edision, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, are not "normal" people.

Sure they are.

 

[Markle]

Nonsense.

Tax deductions are written to encourage certain behavior or discourage certain behavior.

Which is not what taxes are supposed to be for, taxes should be for funding the government. nothing more, nothing less

Supposed to be and the real world is two different things.

 

[dblack]

Nonsense.

Tax deductions are written to encourage certain behavior or discourage certain behavior.

Which is not what taxes are supposed to be for, taxes should be for funding the government. nothing more, nothing less

Supposed to be and the real world is two different things.

I'm always curious about these "that's just the way it is" responses. Do you think government should be using the tax code for social engineering? Is that something you support? Or should we try to minimize it?

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Nonsense.

Tax deductions are written to encourage certain behavior or discourage certain behavior.

Which is not what taxes are supposed to be for, taxes should be for funding the government. nothing more, nothing less

Supposed to be and the real world is two different things.

Only because we allow it to be so.

 

[Andylusion]

The problem is, government.

Government loves having an insane tax system, because that's how they threaten and extort money from business.

This is exactly why we were never supposed to have an income tax at all, because the founders knew this would happen.

You have it backwards. Business loves a complex tax system. That’s how they exploit loopholes.

Those "loopholes" you speak of were written with purpose. Thus, they aren't a "Loophole". That term is used by those that are partisan and/or conspiracy theorists.

Incorrect. Most loopholes are unintended consequences.

Nonsense.

Tax deductions are written to encourage certain behavior or discourage certain behavior.

Tax deductions are written by the wealthy

Who you voted for and put in congress.

 

[Markle]

The problem is, government.

Government loves having an insane tax system, because that's how they threaten and extort money from business.

This is exactly why we were never supposed to have an income tax at all, because the founders knew this would happen.

You have it backwards. Business loves a complex tax system. That’s how they exploit loopholes.

Those "loopholes" you speak of were written with purpose. Thus, they aren't a "Loophole". That term is used by those that are partisan and/or conspiracy theorists.

Incorrect. Most loopholes are unintended consequences.

Nonsense.

Tax deductions are written to encourage certain behavior or discourage certain behavior.

Tax deductions are written by the wealthy

 

[Ken Mac]

Basically, if someone told you that they could predict with 100% accuracy which horse would win every race, or which team would win every Superbowl, people would say they are lying. (Sure, some people make better predictions than others, but no one is "psychic").

So why people would believe any economic or business prediction which a person claims to know will work out that way with 100% certainty is beyond me... cognitive dissonance?

Nobody knows. That's why business's spend so much time in risk assessment.

 

[Ken Mac]

Nonsense.

Tax deductions are written to encourage certain behavior or discourage certain behavior.

Which is not what taxes are supposed to be for, taxes should be for funding the government. nothing more, nothing less

Supposed to be and the real world is two different things.

I'm always curious about these "that's just the way it is" responses. Do you think government should be using the tax code for social engineering? Is that something you support? Or should we try to minimize it?

Minimize it is my opinion. But that horse left the barn with SSI, Medicare, EIC etc..

 

[ThisIsMe]

I see a difference between using tax laws and exploiting them. Exploitation hurts us all.

Well, good for you....I'll try and keep as much of my hard earned money as possible, thanks.

I think it’s pretty dumb that the wealthiest Americans can wind up paying smaller tax rates than average Joes. But then again, the country is run by wealthy Americans so I shouldn’t be surprised that they give themselves loopholes.

Sounds like a good case for a flat tax, no? Everyone pays the same rate, no loopholes, no deductions.

The problem is, government.

Government loves having an insane tax system, because that's how they threaten and extort money from business.

This is exactly why we were never supposed to have an income tax at all, because the founders knew this would happen.

You have it backwards. Business loves a complex tax system. That’s how they exploit loopholes.

When you file your taxes each year, do you try and find every possible deduction, and use any method possible to get as much back as you can?

Most of the normal working people I know do, and a few of then even stretch what is legal to their benefit.

 

[Markle]

Nonsense.

Tax deductions are written to encourage certain behavior or discourage certain behavior.

Which is not what taxes are supposed to be for, taxes should be for funding the government. nothing more, nothing less

Supposed to be and the real world is two different things.

I'm always curious about these "that's just the way it is" responses. Do you think government should be using the tax code for social engineering? Is that something you support? Or should we try to minimize it?

I just live in the real world. It's what it is.

I spent several times a year since the 1980s meeting with my CPA to plan my tax strategy for the remainder of the year and for the coming year.

 

[initforme]

If the rich have all the wealth then I suggest they relocate overseas. Then they don't have to worry. Buh bye.....