Wal-Mart hinting that win for Obama is bad for workers

[jonesjulia]

I believe he's referring to the idea that a flat tax ( be it sales or income) disproportionately affects the poor because taking, say, 5% away from someone making 20,000 cuts more into their lifestyle than someone making 2 million. They'll feel it more on a day to day basis if you see what I mean.

Whether there can be a tinkering to make it a good idea I can't say.

My personal thought is that the tax code needs to be thrown out and rewritten. There's a ton of loopholes in it that large corporations waltz through. I'm not someone who thinks that the rich necessarily need to underwrite the poor but I do object to people/corporations working the system. According to a quick internet search of GAO reports that most of the corporations that control 93% of reported corporate assets in the US reported no tax liability. That's crazy sauce.


http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-358

[adciv]

@jonesjulia: I think you need to re-read that paragraph you link to. What it says is not what you think it says.

BTW, what's crazy is that we tax corporations at all. It makes them less competitive with foriegn corporations and the cost is passed on to the consumer. An analysis would probablyfind it 'regresive' as well. At this point, we need to tax the poor in some way. It's about at the point where they pay no taxes or responsibilities and get most of the benefits of the government. Bread and Circuses, essentially.

@ Lucksi: An underground economy is all activity that avoids taxes that should be charged on it. Think if I am a plumber and go to your place to fix something. You pay me in cash. However, I do not report the income.

[StruckingFuggle]

On the other hand, why should it be fair that someone who earns more pays a higher % in taxes? They already pay more if they pay the same %.

That depends on how you define "pay more".

For illustrative purposes, lets say everyone pays 10%. If you make 100 dollars, you keep 90. If you make 1m, you keep 900,000. The person with the bigger income pays 10,000% more than the person who makes $100 - but I'd rather pay the 100k, because I end up, still, losing a far lot less in terms of purchasing power than the person who only made $100.

[collegestudent22]

That depends on how you define "pay more".

Oh, for fuck's sake. Shut up, "Clinton".

"Well, that depends on how you define "is"."

Fuck you, Fuggle, Fuck you.

[StruckingFuggle]

Sigh. I don't know why, but I'm going to try.

"If you define it as the total amount of dollars paid, yes, person Y pays, then yes, person Y pays more in tax than person X. If you define it as the amount of income that is taxed, then they pay an equal amount. If you define it as the amount of their basic living expenses that are taxed, then person Y pays nothing, and person X pays $10."

(in Quotes because Bandersnatch said it, not I)

[adciv]

Ok, something is wrong with that statement one way or another. Specifically with

If you define it as the amount of their basic living expenses that are taxed, then person Y pays nothing, and person X pays $10."

Y just paid $100,000 in taxes. That is not 'nothing'.

[Arres]

You can't define an income tax as "the % of their basic living expenses paid". That's smoke and mirrors. It is a tax on your income. How much of that you use to feed and clothe yourself isn't material to the discussion. With a flat income tax two people pay the same amount on the same amount earned. So, similarly, comparing the net tax paid by someone making 1 million dollars to someone making 100 dollars is ALSO disingenuous. The person making 1 million is paying the SAME amount for every 100 dollars earned.

[Martin Blank]

Oh, for fuck's sake. Shut up, "Clinton".

"Well, that depends on how you define "is"."

Fuck you, Fuggle, Fuck you.

I'm circling back around into some old threads to get caught up after a few weeks of really evil work hours, so I apologize for getting to this so late.

That said, this post was uncalled for, serves no point, and is against the hosility policy. If I see you post something like this again after this post, even if it is a week later that I see it, you will be banned for a minimum of two weeks.