occupied
Diamond Member
- Nov 8, 2011
- 36,705
- 17,198
Taxation is a fact of life in western societies. There are places that have the regressive tax structure and lack of social programs that conservatives seem to favor and they are among the poorest, most chaotic places on earth, but their rich live like royalty behind walls and armed guards and the peasants work for crumbs. Serfdom is the end game for supply-side economics.When all federal state and local taxes, fees, etc. are added together the working poor pay a large percentage of their income in taxes, no one gets off scot-free except the people who are adept at hiding income as the wealthy are.I understand that but the question of Trickle down VS Trickle up should have a much more definitive answer than it does and I believe it would if the trickle down champions were not wealthy people with a vested interest in making regular people believe that their livelihoods depend on the rich being untaxed and untouchable.There just isn't, though. There are far too many constantly floating variables that make macro forecasting so difficult. It's not only our economy, it's the economy of every other nation. Currency fluctuations, global bond prices, shifting political sands, taxation, sovereign spending, holy shit, war, commodity prices, on and on....there ought to be a better grasp of what works and what doesn't by now rather than this silly ideological war between opposing philosophies.
I agree with you, it would be nice. But when a person on either end of this argument tells you they have The Answer, they're pretty much talking out of their ass.
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wealthy people with a vested interest in making regular people believe that their livelihoods depend on the rich being untaxed and untouchable.
Is that why the economy has been so slow?
The rich should be untaxed, but the top 10% pay 68% of Fed income taxes?
Of course, the rich also pay those same taxes... on TOP of the enormous level percentage of income taxes they pay.
Now, of the two competing sets of ideas: The Ideological Left and the Philosophical Right, which one is it that had demanded those taxes and fees, which in large measure serve to keep the poor... POOR?