the 2012 trivial drivel thread

[HairOfTheDog]

A couple of more interesting stats from the article:
The top 1 percent of earners in a given year receives just under a fifth of the country’s pretax income, about double their share 30 years ago. They pay just over a fourth of all federal taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center. In 2007, they accounted for about 30 percent of philanthropic giving, according to Federal Reserve data. They received 22 percent of their income from capital gains, compared with 2 percent for everybody else.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/busine...wanted=all

I love how "just over a fourth of all federal taxes" is actually 36.7% according to the IRS. Clever way of using words by the liberally biased Tax Policy Center... which is run and underwritten by the Brookings and Urban Institutes, two well known liberal think tanks.

I have to admit, I couldn't read the rest of the article after coming across such a blatant stretch of the truth.

Yeah, you always have to look at the way the numbers are cited and by whom. I thought the article was interesting, in part, because it goes over (top level) who makes up that 1% that sometimes get villainized in the press and by politicians. It's more diverse than some may think.

Here's where I stand, simple really.

I don't advocate for a system that penalizes the successful or the hardest working.

I like the idea of a flat tax. I'd gladly pay 10% of $100,000,000 if that was my annual income. I'd gladly pay 10% of $20,000 if that was my income.

I understand how the proportions and percentages work. Under our current system, it's not equitable, imo. Under a flat tax system if everyone worked and everyone paid the same percentage of their income, it would be imo. Even without full employment and some people contributing nothing, flat tax would still be proportional to the whole because the unemployed make up $0 of the whole and pay $0.

No matter what system of taxation, those who don't work benefit from all of us that do. I understand that some people very legitimately can't work and others may be out of work temporarily through no fault of their own. I don't mind contributing taxes to provide support in those cases.

For those that make it a lifestyle choice not to work (or don't do everything in their power to work) and milk the system, the rest of us pay and it's damn depressing.

Anyway, I'm getting a little down here - because I agree with most of the points put forth this morning. And, I've got to get to work.