Daily Agitator
I am referring to the Tea Party folk……I see the signs about over-taxation and taxed too much and taxation without representation and on and on and……..ad nauseum!
But the TRUTH and I hope you realize the emphasis on the word TRUTH…..is something a bit different than what the GOP and the TP would have us believe……
You wouldn’t know it from the clamor of anti-tax protests, but Americans turned over a lower share of their income to the taxman last year than at any time since the Truman administration, according to a USA Today analysis. State, local, and federal taxes took up 9.2% of income last year, the lowest proportion since 1950 and well below the average of 12% over the last 50 years.
The tax rate paid by all Americans has shrunk 26% since the recession began in 2007, largely because of tax cuts in the stimulus package and lower consumer spending reducing the amount of sales tax paid. Do the figures mean all those Tea Party tax protests are wrong-headed? Not so, says Adam Brandon at protest organizer FreedomWorks. The real problem, he says, is runaway spending and the huge deficit, which is going to have to be paid for by future taxes.
That from a post on Newser on 12 May 2010.
Just what are they worked up about? If the taxation thing is not it, then what? Could it be a color thing and the tax thing is just a cover? What are these uninformed people really protesting?
Adam Brandon IS probably right (though he may not realise it). You guys are going to be paying for this for generations, just as we Brits are starting to do now.
There is no such thing as too big to fail when it comes to national economies and the deficit WILL destroy America if it’s allowed to!
Trust me on this – Brits are just finding out!
As a matter of interest – Spain has just announced a 5% CUT in Spanish public sector workers’ pay this year and a freeze next year in an attempt to head off catastrophe and possibly heading the way of Greece, who may possibly NEVER be able to fix their economy!
But this is just dumb…they yell about taxes and it is the lowest in about 50 yrs…..sso what are the yelling about if not taxes……or do they just want to yell?
Probably and yes, I accept the idea behind that thought…
But it’s simple economics – you CANNOT keep on borrowing without ONE DAY having to face repayment. That day is fast approaching and who do you think is going to do the paying? YOU!
You think it’s bad right now? You ain’t seen NOTHING yet! Brits and other Europeans are just beginning to find that out!
Watch for my post about the US being the next Greece….a work in progress….
It COULD happen, if they don’t all start living in the REAL world!
K.I.S.S.—-my point exactly…….everyone pays the same income tax percentage….whatever they decide it is to be and there is NO deductions, no breaks, no incentives and no loopholes……and then SS everyone pays the same percentage here to and on every dime they make in income….it is simple…..
Superficially, I agree, but it won’t work…
Firstly, There should be ONE tax allowed throughout the land (except for LOCAL taxes). In my view that should NOT be any form of income tax, but simply VAT on all “non-essential” goods (i.e. not on things like food, water, domestic power and kids essentials like clothing). For sure there should NEVER be separate payments into SS – it’s a f*cking TAX – be honest about it!
Secondly, whilst I have no argument with flat rate and easy to understand taxes, if you are not very careful, you could find yourself making tax too expensive for the rich. You might think that’s just tough on them, but they would simply take themselves and their businesses down to Brazil, or Panama, or the cayman Islands – because they CAN – and leave only the poor behind in America, which is no longer the largest market in the world by a VERY long way. Who would suffer the most out of that? Heck a few of them could get together and BUY Brazil between them!
Politics should always not only strive to be fair, but MUST be realistic and pragmatic, otherwise we get nowhere! Taxes are all simply legalised theft – a necessary evil – and should be kept to a minimum! No government can govern for long without the consent (even the tacit consent) of the people and no economy can flourish without the rich – be they individuals or corporations!
So, everybody actually needs everyone else and ANY group, rich or poor, forgets that at its peril!
If the company does business in the US it pays……if you want one simple tax for it all…then how about land value taxation? Personally, do not care how much money they make…but if I pay 10% they pay 10%……if everybody paid their share then there would be NO need for the hidden taxes like excise and tariffs and the like….
Drop the corporate tax to 15%…that would about 5% below the world average and if they want to go to Brazil they pay for that privilege too…..
Land tax is fine as a LOCAL tax, but not nationally. VAT and probably a low rate (as you suggest) of corporation tax should be the ONLY national taxes, not least because it would take away a whole set of excuses for the government to snoop into ordinary people’s lives and financial affairs.
Cut out a few wars and other things they have no business doing and they could live with that I’m sure.
But if LVT was done totally we could possible eliminate all other taxes and the local govts would fund the Fed as well…I know it is a pipedreams and will NEVER happen because , at least here, it is all about property rights and how top use them to void taxes……