We can become like the old Soviet joke. “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.”

A leftist paradise.

why do I even strive to make more money when they just take more of it away?

sounds like you’re shrugging, Atlas!
who IS John Galt?

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=677710

Most of the posters there just can’t see what the problem is with 10% of the taxpayers footing 73% of the tax burden. In fact, they’re MAD that top 10% isn’t paying for EVERYTHING.

According to the CBO, those who made less than $44,300 in 2001 — 60% of the country — paid a paltry 3.3% of all income taxes. By 2005, almost all of them were excused from paying any income tax.

That quote doesn’t seem right to me. I have been and am still in that income range, yet my federal taxes are 25%! (Of course I’m single and have no deductions whatsoever.) I sure would like to figure out how I can be excused from paying any income tax!

Dude, you need turbotax ASAP.

If your gross income is $44K, your taxable income is about $40K after just the basic standard deduction. With an AGI of $40K, your federal tax is about $6K or 13.6% of your total income. And that’s assuming you have no deductions at all, which is almost unheard of.

That can’t ever happen. Everyone who wants SOME collectivism, will always want MORE collectivism. Because liberalism is the only addiction in the world which has only external costs.

Alcohol rots your liver; cocain dissolves your nasal septum… Every other addiction in the world has personal consequences. But the expression “give ’till it hurts” only applies when you’re giving away YOUR OWN MONEY.

Once someone decides that giving away other people’s money makes him feel better about himself, the “addict” never personally feels any pain; only pleasure — until the entire country hits rock bottom.

TheMightyMonarch on April 13, 2009 at 3:56 PM

Hear,Hear

Logic on April 13, 2009 at 4:16 PM

That shows you how many people have dependents and income levels that qualify them for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Who would turn down free money?

According to the CBO, those who made less than $44,300 in 2001 — 60% of the country — paid a paltry 3.3% of all income taxes. By 2005, almost all of them were excused from paying any income tax.

That quote doesn’t seem right to me. I have been and am still in that income range, yet my federal taxes are 25%! (Of course I’m single and have no deductions whatsoever.) I sure would like to figure out how I can be excused from paying any income tax!

The only really fair way to settle the whole income tax “unfairness” is to have as close to a pure flat tax as possible with a very limited number of allowable deductions, and it should never exceed more than 20% for ANYONE. This would also eliminate the 7,000-page tax code and make only a skeleton crew of an IRS necessary. Forbes’ flat tax proposal is a good start to transition to a pure flat tax.

Who is John Galt

JKotthoff on April 13, 2009 at 4:03 PM

He is a fashion designer.

What would happen if everybody refused to make the effort to earn money?

Imagine an entire country under the thumb of the UAW and you’ll get an idea.

Of course it will never happen. The Democratic Party can’t win on anything but class and race warfare, so the only way they can win elections is to increase the proportion of moochers to producers.

Here’s another idea. A lot of kids take part time jobs at 16. Since they technically have no vote, they should be exempt from paying taxes until they do. Give them two years of tax-free earnings then pull the rug out from under them at 18. It might teach them a badly needed lesson about the overreach of government into their paychecks.

Sales taxes, particularly large ones, do much more to encourage illegal activity than income taxes, because there is a lower threshold to cheating.

Ummmm, no

That is wrong on so many levels. We have no income Tax here is Washington State, with businesses collecting the Salestax. People don’t buy software or computers to pay their taxes, they don’t withhold, they have privacy from the State and much lower costs overall. The advantages of a Sales Tax or Fair Tax or whatever are not just in income but savings in lost time, privacy and increased Bother.

It sickens me that Democrats are basically buying votes buy promissing to take money from the “rich” and give it away via social programs to people who don’t pay taxes

The uber rich rich on Wall-Street? Probably votes Democratic anyway..and he’s not going to be affected by a 4% tax increase.

It’s not about fairness. Everyone knows you don’t make poor people wealthy by taxing the rich. It’s about politics. Strangely it’s worked for them lately..

You do realize that when taxes were cut under Reagan and Bush, that revenue increased.

Do you think it is a good idea for so many to pay virtually nothing in taxes?

rbj on April 13, 2009 at 2:49 PM

Be careful with that one — revenue didn’t go up until the second tax cut with Bush (I think that was the one where rates were cut, while the first was more of the deduction/credit crap). People like to use the fact that revenue went down after the first cut to argue against the second cut.

The only fair tax is any form of a Flat Tax.
When one pays at a lower income the same Rate as someone at a higher income. The person at a higher income level pays monetarily more than one at the lower income but the rate is the same. This model also is fair by making it easier for people to move up the economic ladder.

lwssdd on April 13, 2009 at 1:57 PM

…not to mention removing the corrupting nobs and buttons out of the reach of congress (provide you make it an amendment rather than a law).

Why is this a problem? It makes half of the nation dependent on the other half, and not just in “refundables”.

Really, it makes half the nation dependent on the top 10%. So let’s strip away the income of the top 10%, shall we?

and i wound up paying about $15,000 in income taxes this year, as a college student working full time.

ernesto on April 13, 2009 at 2:13 PM

Um, that would be on a net income of about $75,000 (after all deductions). So you must have a pretty sweet job, not just a poor working college student.

You do realize that when taxes were cut under Reagan and Bush, that revenue increased.

Do you think it is a good idea for so many to pay virtually nothing in taxes?

taxdayteaparty.com/