Tax Cuts - Simplified!

[castille]

I don't know who originally wrote this, but kudos to them.


Sometimes Politicians can exclaim; "It's just a tax cut for the rich!", and it is just accepted to be
fact. But what does that really mean?

This is how the cookie crumbles.


Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner.
The bill for all ten comes to $100.
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.
· The fifth ("middle class") would pay $1.
· The sixth would pay $3.
· The seventh $7.
· The eighth $12.
· The ninth $18.
· The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant 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 meal by $20."

So, now dinner for the ten only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.

So, the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free.

· 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 paid $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).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat 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 (and richest) 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 me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only $2? 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.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate 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!

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. After all, they're PAYING THE MOST TAXES TO BEGIN WITH.

Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore.

After all, there are lots of good restaurants in Asia and the Caribbean.

[Gorgo]

It's more like, the tenth man (the richest) eats $300 worth of food and leaves a tip of $3.

The next eats $10 worth of food and pays $12

The next eats $5 worth of food and pays $12

and on to the last man who eats what's left over, has to be locked up in the kitchen for the rest of his life, and has to have his children locked up for the rest of their lives, to pay the bill.

[castille]

Originally posted by Gorgo, It's more like, the tenth man (the richest) eats $300 worth of food and leaves a tip of $3.

What country do you live in? From what I recall no country in the world has a tax of 1% for the richest tax.

The next eats $10 worth of food and pays $12 The next eats $5 worth of food and pays $12

What the hell? How can you pay more taxes than you earn as income?

and on to the last man who eats what's left over, has to be locked up in the kitchen for the rest of his life, and has to have his children locked up for the rest of their lives, to pay the bill.

Ok, this is seriously getting boring.

The first time a leftist whined about poverty, it was cute. The 2nd time, it was cute. The 3rd time, it got annoying. The 1,000,000,000th time, it gets boring.

Since the world is in such a terrible condition and its all the capitalist's fault, why dont you sell your capitalist computer, shut down your capitalist Internet account, and give the money to the poor? Or are you all talk, no action, like every leftist academic?

[Gorgo]

Where did I use the words capitalist or fault?

Originally posted by castille, Since the world is in such a terrible condition and its all the capitalist's fault, why dont you sell your capitalist computer, shut down your capitalist Internet account, and give the money to the poor? Or are you all talk, no action, like every leftist academic?

[Gorgo]

http://www.faireconomy.org/press/2004/Shif...TaxCuts_pr.html

[castille]

The fact that you're blaming the rich for the problems of the poor alert me to that.

Also you still have answered me - how exactly can you pay more taxes than income?

[PatrickHenry]

Originally posted by castille, I don't know who originally wrote this, but kudos to them.

If you don't know the author, is there a link or was it an e-mail chain or what? Fact is, we don't all eat the same dinner; your story's a crock. And foreigner, what qualifies your comments on the US tax system?

[m3talsmith]

Catille, I'm curious as to where you got your figures to run the example on. I'd like to run a few test against them if possbile. Could you provide your formulas? Thanks in advance.

[Gorgo]

By not getting paid for your labor.

Originally posted by castille, Also you still have answered me - how exactly can you pay more taxes than income?

[madprophet]

This would be a nice little scenerio if it in any way resembled reality. Bush didn't sale the Tax Cuts as simply giving back tax money to those who paid into the system, he sold them as "Economic Stimulus." The last one was called the Jobs and Growth Plan, remember? It's trickle down economics all over again, which is a bit different than, "hey, we got some extra money here so we're gonna give it back to you, the taxpayer."

[Compugasm]

The scariest thing, is that a Communist is making the most sense out of anyone here today. He's the only one who understood the concept, and the rest bicker about the meal garnishments and obfuscate with tax code. Patrick Henry, I'm disappointed.

[Gorgo]

Again, where did I use the word 'blame?'

Originally posted by castille, The fact that you're blaming the rich for the problems of the poor alert me to that.

[Gorgo]

Well said.

Originally posted by madprophet, This would be a nice little scenerio if it in any way resembled reality.

[castille]

All I am saying is, if you keep pushing the rich out with your taxes and discrimination, they will simply send their wealth to another country and impoverish your own.

In Australia (where taxes are high), there has been numerous companies that have moved to places like the US or Hong Kong, taking all their money with them.

[castille]

Originally posted by PatrickHenry, And foreigner, what qualifies your comments on the US tax system?

What qualifies Americans to invade other countries?

Also I never mentioned the US tax system.

[madprophet]

Originally posted by castille, In Australia (where taxes are high), there has been numerous companies that have moved to places like the US or Hong Kong, taking all their money with them.

Do you have any evidence to back up this claim? I'm looking at the World Factbook and I'm seeing per capita GDP that is roughly equal between Hong Kong and Australia (2002 est) and GDP growth in Australia that is higher than both the US and HK (2002 est.)

Can you prove that Australia's capital is in flight? Can you prove that it isn't simply a bubble in foreign investment? Can you prove that the cause of said flight is Australia's higher taxes?

[Gorgo]

Who is impoverishing our country now?

Originally posted by castille, All I am saying is, if you keep pushing the rich out with your taxes and discrimination, they will simply send their wealth to another country and impoverish your own. In Australia (where taxes are high), there has been numerous companies that have moved to places like the US or Hong Kong, taking all their money with them.

[castille]

Originally posted by madprophet, Can you prove that Australia's capital is in flight?

See the article here: http://www.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/04/06/aus...ralia.newscorp/. News Corp, one of Australia's largest media companies, will be moving to the US. Originally began by Rupert Murdoch in Adelaide, over recent years News Corp realised 75% of its profit came from the US, not Australia.

Worrying when Australia's largest news company realises Australia is no longer useful.

Who is impoverishing our country now?

Taxes.

[Compugasm]

Wow, it's gotta be bad if you're moving TO the US.

[madprophet]

Castille, that's your proof? Faux News' parent company moves to the US (where most of it's business is at) and you reason that large swaths of Australian capital is fleeing the country because of high taxes? Come on! Are you fucking serious?