If the tax code were as simple as your little story of ten men eating a meal, then you'd have a good point. The problem is is that the way taxes are levied isn't quite that simple. If taxes were figured as a percentage of one's gross earnings your analogy might fit a little better. As you know, that isn't how taxes are figured.
As stated, the above illustration is a simplified one. That does not, however, mean that it is invalid. It presents an understandable (and, again, simplified) explanation of how tax cuts work. The analogy stands up to scrutiny, and it's intentions cannot be dismissed on the grounds that it's too simple. It is not a story about the intricacies of the tax code, the theory behind adjusted gross income, or the conspiracy against the poor that is being waged by the big bad IRS and our legal system. It's a logical, straightforward presentation of who benefits from tax cuts, and how clouded the issue can become by those who cry out for equality without weighting the benefit gained against the original contribution made.
Of course taxes are not based on a flat percentage against gross income. That's just silly. If that were the case, the poorest among us would not be excluded from payment of federal taxes, and none of us would not have the benefit of pre-tax expense and interest deductions and GI reduction allowances for a large variety of expenses. Yes, the tax code is complicated. Taxation is a complicated business. Do some of the policies and practices benefit the wealthy? You bet. But the tax code certainly does NOT benefit only the rich. If you want to add a dimension to the dinner-bill story, you might want to consider that the few of the four poorest diners are actually being PAID to eat by virtue of the tax code (i.e. the Earned Income Credit).
There's a lot about the tax system that I don't know, but one thing I know very well is that the rich are able to hide much of the wealth on which their fair share of taxes should be based but isn't. Since it's (educated and wealthy) lawyers who write the tax code to begin with, it should come as no surprise that they would be interested in helping their own. And they do.
If someone takes the stance that the tax code only benefits the rich and that the little guy is getting constantly and repeatedly screwed, but in the same breath admits they don't know much about the system they are railing against, they have little hope of having credibility assigned to their assertions.
Funny, thing when I was your age I was a liberal and anti-business. That changed over the years when I came to work in a management position and got to understand how business works. On the issue of your envy of the rich, I say, get over it.
Larc-it's funny how that works, isn't it? I think sometimes we get attached to the way we view ourselves, and it's difficult to recognize we've changed. I was a dyed in the wool liberal in college. As my views began to shift after I moved into my career, started a family, and grew older, it was almost painful to admit how much different the kid I used to be was from the woman I've become. I remember my husband grinning a few years ago after one of our discussions about various socio-economic/political issues and saying "You know what this means, honey? You're a republican!"
