Tax Protest on Tuesday
April 15, 2012 in Uncategorized
Recent Comments
 | "Henchman Of Justice… on March against Monsanto this… |
 | moviedad on How does vinegar mix with tin… |
 | That Other Anonymous on March against Monsanto this… |
 | Forest Queen on March against Monsanto this… |
| moviedad on March against Monsanto this… |
 | Cookie on March against Monsanto this… |
| "Henchman Of Justice… on March against Monsanto this… |
| "Henchman Of Justice… on March against Monsanto this… |
| Erasmus on March against Monsanto this… |
| Cookie on March against Monsanto this… |
 | suzy blah blah on Priorities |
 | Not A Native on March against Monsanto this… |
| suzy blah blah on For a Crisp Spring Saturday… |
 | HUUFC on March against Monsanto this… |
 | Eric Kirk on March against Monsanto this… |
19 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 15, 2012 at 8:49 pm
Anonymous
Such a bunch of BS ! Obama makes more than 8x what I make yet his tax rate is 20.5% and mine is 25%
Just a bunch of freeloaders that think the world owes them a living for not doing squat.
Depending on who you believe there is 47 or 49 % of the population that pays no taxes! I’d like to see everyone pay tazxes, at least some. Even if you make $20,000 a year, you pay something.
April 16, 2012 at 12:16 am
tra
You do realize, don’t you, that Romney makes much more money than Obama, and pays an even lower tax rate?
And perhaps you haven’t heard, but Obama’s tax plan would increase his own taxes, whereas Romney’s tax plan would decrease his own taxes by millions of dollars. Yet you’re all pissed off at Obama.
Looks like Selective Outrage Disorder has claimed another victim.
April 16, 2012 at 6:20 am
Fred Mangels
The bottom line is it’s the usual suspects demanding those in the next tax bracket above them pay more taxes.
April 16, 2012 at 8:20 am
Mitch
Dear Anonymous,
When someone is employed at $10/hr, they pay payroll taxes of about 5.6%. So does their employer, who pays 7.6% (who must treat the payroll tax as part of the cost of employing the $10/hr employee). The largest share of these taxes are only collected on something like the first $100,000 per year of salary. When people tell you these are “contributions,” and not taxes, ask them what happens if you decline to contribute.
In addition to the payroll taxes, someone employed full time at $10/hr is paying 15% federal income tax on their income after the first $10,000 or so, and between 2 and 4% on their income after the first $10,000 or so.
So your worker making $10/hr full time does pay taxes. If you consider the employer share of payroll taxes to be a tax on the employee (as, in economic reality, it is), typical $10/hr workers pay a far higher percentage of the money their employer set aside for their wages than the typical billionaire pays on their income stream.
Do you not believe that?
April 16, 2012 at 8:21 am
Mitch
The 2% to 4% I mentioned above is California’s income tax.
April 16, 2012 at 9:17 am
HUUFC
Class warfare obama style. The top 1% pay 37% of the federal income taxes, the top 50% pay 100% of the federal income taxes.
If you used the police power of the federal government to take all of the evil rich people’s money, then spent it, what would you do?
April 16, 2012 at 9:43 am
Eric Kirk
HUUFC – but tax has always been about the benefit you actually receive from government, and since its inception in early agrarian societies government has always been about protecting accumulated wealth. All policy is related to that purpose – even social programs basically designed as relief-valves to prevent food riots and revolution (Keynes was explicit about that).
So yes, the top 1% pays a large percent of taxes. Limiting the discussion to federal income taxes is a bit misleading, because state and local taxes, which incorporate sales and other regressive or less progressive taxes) actually spread more of the burden to those who benefit the least.
This is from Wikipedia.
In 2007 the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country’s total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country’s wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15%. Financial inequality was greater than inequality in total wealth, with the top 1% of the population owning 42.7%, the next 19% of Americans owning 50.3%, and the bottom 80% owning 7%.[7] However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%. The Great Recession also caused a drop of 36.1% in median household wealth but a drop of only 11.1% for the top 1%, further widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%.[7][8][9]
I can’t personally vouch for the accuracy of the stats, but assuming it’s even close, one can argue that the federal income tax burdens you have posted are actually regressive rather than progressive. To the extent that we benefit from government proportionate to our wealth, the rest of us are actually subsidizing the top 20 percent.
April 16, 2012 at 10:24 am
S
I wrote this essay fourteen years ago and I think the basic idea is still valid:
–TAX the SUPER-RICH
End Poverty, hunger and despair for millions of human beings in America and throughout the World: Tax the Super Rich and create an Economic Boom in the process.
The Super Rich are an abomination before God. They are an abomination to any decent society. They are a serious threat to the Nation’s international trade relationships. And they are supreme evidence of a dysfunctional social system guaranteeing social destabilization caused by enormous disparities in the distribution of socially produced goods and services. The Super Rich get that way by unconscionable conduct. By using unfair economic advantages over less economically fortunate or less aggressive individuals, the Super Rich are those individuals and families who run monopoly empires, ruling like kings over mass distribution systems such as energy, computers, drugs, weapons, sports, entertainment, communications, any systems or products that have gigantic mass markets. Once an enterprise or an individual reaches the multi-million dollar bracket, further gains become almost automatic. Bank interest payments alone will continually add gigantic amounts of new wealth to these few individuals and families.
Our current legal and business system favors Big Money enterprise over smaller enterprises. Competition gets reduced and eliminated as corporate monopoly players team together to force out competition from smaller enterprises. It’s time to put a stop to the social irresponsibility of letting the Super Rich system continue. Putting enormous fortunes into the hands of a privileged few who earn as much as the combined earnings of 90% of American citizens cannot be tolerated. Putting enormous fortunes in the hands of these few Super Rich while millions upon millions of people live in constant threat of starvation is barbaric behavior and totally unconscionable in any civilized society worthy of the name. We must end the Super Rich socially criminal behavior like we ended Al Capone’s criminal career. We tax them out of existence. We regain our economic strength by having Congress legislate either an Act of Congress or an Amendment to the Constitution that simply states:
1) All U.S. citizen will be taxed at a rate of 100% for any income exceeding one million dollars per year, with no exceptions, no loopholes, no way for any individual to acquire over one million dollars per year.
2) No individual or corporation can hold assets exceeding one million dollars per year or transfer assets exceeding a million dollars per year into foreign bank accounts without the same tax law applying.
3) All taxed income over one million dollars per year is to distributed to Social Security programs, Medicare programs, educational grants, low interest home and business loans to low and moderate income families and individuals, and environmental protection projects.
4) A fund will be established for United Nations and various church and charitable organizations’ for bringing food, clothing, shelter, and cooperative community self-sufficiency programs and advisers to the world’s desperately poor.
Taking this action will only effect the illegitimate prosperity of a very few number of individuals while it will bring the middle-class back into its rightful prominence as the stable economic and social backbone of America. This action will also begin an Economic Boom era for America’s economy as the Super Rich are forced to divest their holdings and companies. With divestment mandatory, re-investment will occur and hundreds, if not thousands of new businesses and jobs will be opened up. This action will rightfully gain America new productive members of society as well as opening up huge new markets both within the U.S. and throughout the world. This action will start a worldwide precedent for all nations laboring under the thumbs of about 250 Super Rich individuals who’s combined yearly incomes could feed and house the majority of the world’s people and allow them the opportunity to rise out of unnecessary poverty and hopelessness. And this action won’t stop the benefits of entrepreneurism. There’s still plenty of room left for enterprising individuals to prosper with every year with the opportunity to become multi-millionaires.
Society should rightfully honor those individuals who organize economic enterprises that service and enhance our lives. But the economic rewards of entrepreneurial creation must not become ends in themselves or society suffers. A taxation system like this will return us pride in being Good Americans–giving as we receive–just as this taxation system will brings us new days when to be a “millionaire” will really mean something special once again.–
April 16, 2012 at 10:42 am
goatboy
Spoken like a true communist. Oh I’m sorry progressive. Wikipedia input is not reviewed so anything from it has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Of course would it not be better to put all assets into a big pot and just give everyone what they needed. Good luck, has not worked ever. Never will.
April 16, 2012 at 10:47 am
Eric Kirk
I haven’t been called a communist in quite a while. Brings back pleasant memories where right wing students in high school and college called me “Eric the Red” and “Comrade Kirk.”
On the Wikipedia passage, here are the sources footnoted in the paragraph. Domhoff is a radical I guess – a “communist” by your standards – but Forbes isn’t.
7.^ a b Occupy Wall Street And The Rhetoric of Equality Forbes November 1, 2011 by Deborah L. Jacobs
8.^ Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze—an Update to 2007 by Edward N. Wolff, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, March 2010
9.^ Wealth, Income, and Power by G. William Domhoff of the UC-Santa Barbara Sociology Department
April 16, 2012 at 10:56 am
Fred Mangels
I was disappointed to see my federal income tax more than doubled this year. That was a big, unlwelcome and unexpected hit. We still don’t pay state income tax since we don’t make enough.
April 16, 2012 at 1:07 pm
Mitch
S,
What’s your next step? Will you be trying to get the Republicans to add this to their platform or the Democrats? Greens or Libs? Or will you just be relying on superior might?
Eric,
It’s just amazing how many people are willing or even anxious to be screwed, as long as they think they’re not the worst-screwed. You’d think I’d have gotten over my head-shaking, jaw-dropping astonishment by now, but I guess it ain’t gonna happen.
April 16, 2012 at 5:41 pm
michael
Don’t forget that the non-rich spend their extra money in the economy as consumers while the rich “invest” theirs. If they invested in things that grew the economy that would be fine. Unfortunately, more and more, they invest it in government debt that should have been paid by taxes and goes back to them as the services they need and those their employees and consumers need because they don’t get paid enough, returns to the military technology prison complex, and most importantly in speculation on commodities which raise everyone’s cost of living.
April 16, 2012 at 8:30 pm
Anonymous
Comrade Kirk, kind of has a ring to it ! just joking
April 16, 2012 at 10:21 pm
Eric Kirk
Oh, it definitely has a ring to it.
April 17, 2012 at 8:34 am
moviedad
Oh, I see, if we want the rich to pay their fair share, then we’re all communists?
April 17, 2012 at 10:19 am
bob
anonymous april 15
>>>Such a bunch of BS ! Obama makes more than 8x what I make yet his >>>tax rate is 20.5% and mine is 25%
i don’t know how you calculate this, but it’s clearly different than the way obama’s is figured. obama’s 20.5% is federal income tax only, and doesn’t include state taxes or social security taxes. there’s not a chance in hell that if you take your total income, and multiply it by 25%, that you paid that amount to the feds for income tax. not possible. but that’s how they calculated obama’s rate.
>>>The president and first lady Michelle Obama reported adjusted gross >>>income of $789,674 for 2011. They paid out $162,074 in federal tax — >>>a rate of 20.5%.
if you are single and made exactly $100,000(meaning obama and wife earned LESS than 8x your income), had no deductions of any kind(kids, mortgage, etc), you’d pay just over $20,000 in federal income tax–a tad less than president obama. if your family is more like obama’s, married with a couple of kids, you’d pay more like $8000 in federal income tax–comes out to about 8%, a bit lower than the pres.
and isn’t obama suggesting a set of rates that would increase his own income tax? would you?
April 17, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Jim
I like that the protests on tax day have flipped to the ‘not enough taxes’ side somewhat this year. Refreshing, unlike that nasty tea.
April 19, 2012 at 3:13 am
tr
People think of fairness and equality as being the same word. It is not. What is fair is that we all strive to ensure every human being has their basic needs met. What is fair is that we create an economic infrastructure including roads, education, and healthcare as well as the sewers and other stuff needed; so that the entire economy benefits and everyone in it.
Equality is about the opportunity, once the infrastructure is there, which each person in our society has to build their own lives however they choose to do so. And choices can range from working lower wage blue collar jobs all your life or being a stock broker.
But providing that sound infrastructure is EVERYONE’S burden in my viewpoint. If it takes higher tax rates to pull it off and some people pay more than others because they live way beyond the basic needs level and are very comfortable and secure then that is the way it has to be. Equal does not mean that every one pays the same. After all we don’t consume resources in that infrastructure at the same rate. A poor man doesn’t travel on the roads as much, etc.
What is fair is that a basic economic pie is made and we do what has to be done to create that pie and draw from our collective resources as a team, as a nation, because there is power in doing so. We need to raise taxes on higher incomes because that is how we create opportunity for every one. After all are you going to produce the needed dough from the poor who have nothing more to give? That makes things equal not the measure of the stack of bills one contributes.