by purplesofa 21 Replies latest jw friends
Purps, this is a good story. I read it a long time ago and enjoyed it again. It may not be exactly accurate but it shows how unfair our tax system is.
As a matter of fact, Snopes does not address whether it is accurate or not. They only say it was not written by the Univ of GA professor or another professor it was credited to. They have not determined for sure who did write it.
Did anyone mention taxes go to the people who created the money out of thin air and charged you interest to get into the game at all?
Yeah except it's totally shit!
They forget to add that the rich man owns the bar and makes $2 for every beer sold. He also keeps 10% of the bartenders tips and fired him the next day for giving discounts. He owns the slums where the poor men live, he manages to stop them from getting a good eduction and through racist and elitist laws and union busting he has managed to block them from getting good jobs. Now he pays them minimum wage to mow his huge yard that he bought by paying the middle men 10 an hour for working in his factory. The men make a product that he sells for $100,000 a day. Man 5 tried to open his own factory but man 10 went to the government and complained about the competition so the government takes money out of man 5's OWN pocket (taxes) and gives it to man 10 as subsidies for his business (and man 10 outsourced resulting in man #4 loosing his job) so man 5's own money was used to drive himself out of business! Now man 5 is heading for the slums. While man 10 gets a 50 million dollar bonus that he hides from the IRS and doesn't' pay taxes on. Meanwhile men 6,7 sell man 10's product for him so they make a bit more, they make about 1/100th of their total sales. The remaining 99% goes in the pocket of man 10.
Sorry but I DON'T feel sorry for the rich. They want to stop coming to the bar GOOD they need to shut the f*ck up and stop whining about the fact that they have so much more money that they acquired by abusing the other 9 men in the story!
Mincan...back in the day many found shiney rocks...he did not find many. For years, man based the value of everything on rare shiney rocks... way before he could due anything with the rocks but admire them. Later on, as man became smarter he found other rocks that he couild make things of use, like tools, from. These rocks became were traded and paid for with the shiney rocks. Whoever had the most shiney rocks won the game.
Gold and silver have some industrial uses today...as do diamonds, platinum etc. For those metals to be the basis for value back then baffles me. Seems man has always made money out of "thin air"
Jeff
Well here's one that I've actually used on a couple guys in work. I was talking to 2 guys, I'll call them "A" and "B". And we were talking about taxes and wealth distribution. So I asked "A", how much cash do you have on you? He said $5. Then I asked "B", how much do you have? He said $20. So I told "B", "that's not fair! You have to give me $5 so I can give it to "A" right now, and if you don't hand me the money, you could face jail time!" They both got the point. It's simplified, but that is exactly how it works.
Still Fading, that is positively not the way it works, and it has nothing to do with "fair". That is not and never has been the point.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
This is supposed to make it appeal to the blue collar voters. Joe Six Pack.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: the first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
Naturally, you are supposed to think about people on welfare, having babies, getting food stamps, living in public housing. This is a fallacy. Most poor people work. Poor people pay taxes every time they buy gasoline, food, clothing, etc. A lot of hard working poor people pay a significant portion of their income in taxes. The notion that 40% of the population gets something for nothing is wrong.
The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18.
So, the middle and upper middle class pay higher percentages of their income in taxes. Well, heck, they ARE making a more money than the working poor. The only problem is that the middle class is under pressure from stagnant wages and inflation.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they decided to do.
So, what is the assumption here? The wealthiest 10% pay 59% of the taxes? Well, who do you think the government works for? That same government makes it possible for that wealthiest 10% to get even richer. The system works for them! Corporate welfare anyone?
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. Since you are all such good customers, he said, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
This reads like a fairy tale. Since when has the cost of running the government gone down?
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
The truth of the matter is that real tax reform is complicated. The current problems are systemic, and they will not get better.
And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% Savings).The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
LOL! So now the rich guy pays 61.25% of the bill! And still the assumption is that everyone gets served equally.
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. 'I only got a dollar out of the $20,' declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, 'but he got $10!' 'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!' 'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!' 'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!' The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
Right. So, 90% of the population decides to "beat up" the richest 10%? Huh? How is that supposed to happen? Do you actually think your vote means anything? The only candidate for president (Edwards) who called for corporate accountability was put out of the running real fast. Neither Obama nor McCain is going to "beat up" rich people. They have been bought and paid for by the wealthiest people in the world.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill! (The 10th man was originally paying $59 of $100, then $49 of $80).
This is so full of shit. Like another poster said, the rich man OWNS the bar.
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
"Boys and girls"? Why is this person talking down to us? Why should rich people get a tax reduction at the same time that the government is increasingly in debt? Just where are the uncontrolled mobs "attacking" rich people?
No, I think that real wealthy people don't pay attention to this kind of drivel. This is Neocon political babble. It's the same kind of crap they have been spewing since the '80s to turn the middle class against the working poor, all the while stealing from both.
Dave
Obama is being called a socialist merely because his proposal restores the top tax rate on earnings over $250K from 36% to 39%. Holy cripes!
Of course McCain wants to kiss up to the wealthiest Americans by extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.
As I understand it, McCain wants to keep the tax cuts for the wealthy, while not giving any tax cuts to the middle-income earners.
Some historical perspective -- in times past the top tax rate on the wealthiest was astronomical. During World War I that top-tier tax rate was hiked to 73%.
After Hoover's tax cuts of the 1920's, FDR shot the top-tier tax rate to 91%.
And today we're supposed to be shocked at a proposed not-huge bump from 36% to 39% on that portion of income over $250K. Holy cripes again.
The only problem is that the middle class is under pressure from stagnant wages
Dave, this is the crux of the issue.
And who does this issue benefit?!!!!!
Not only does one of the rich guys own the bar, they own the house that the guy at the bottom rents. Or the widget factory that the other guy at the bottom works at to make his below living wage, so the guy at the top can make higher profit!!! Grrrrrrr!
Jeff's simplified system for spreading the wealth around: stealing will be legal as long as the person you take the money from has more than you do.
McCains simplified system, you can steal from whoever you want providing YOUR rich and the people your stealing from are poor! The rich GET rich by stealing from and exploiting the poor! Where do you think their 'riches' come from? Other rich people? Please spare me your neo-con horse dung!
