BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - I will pay more in federal income taxes this year than ExxonMobil

Peter (Yes, that one)

In article ,
says...

On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 22:13:24 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

"About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either
their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions
and exemptions to eliminate their liability."

Your philosophy: Soak the middle/lower earners, let the rich get richer.

--
Nom=de=Plume

When you have families in the $40-50k a year range paying zero taxes
and 2 people making $70-80k paying 10% tax, I don't think anybody is
soaking the little guy.
Like I asked BP, what is this middle class who is getting soaked?
With the new tax changes people making over $250k are probably going
to be paying close to 90% of the taxes.
If you really want to see some taxes, get that "free" public health
care thing going. It ads about 25% to the average Canadian's tax bill,
far more than that for a Frenchman

Please. You are speaking as if federal income tax is the only tax.
It is not. There is FICA, Medicare, and health plans coming directly
out of paychecks. And often state taxes.
There are state, local, RE, and sales taxes to drain even more of what's
left.
Then there are baseline expenses like heating, electricity, gasoline,
auto insurance, education and groceries that everybody is subject to.
Discretionary income is what determines who is "middle class."
Or any other "class."
It is a very dishonest argument you make.
Strikingly similar to talking points I hear from one political party.
When you do the arithmetic and find that a 100K salary can provide 6 or
7 times the discretionary income as a 50k income, then you'll begin to
understand the concept of wealth, and who is footing what percentage of
the bills for services and profits.
I leave aside all ideas of beer salary and champagne tastes, as that is
another subject.
By the way, BP may indeed be "wealthy" in the scheme of national income
statistics, and not "middle class."
It takes only 100k to put one in the top 5% of income "earners."
That does not mean he cannot see what is happening regarding
distribution of wealth, and sympathize with whatever the "middle class"
really is.
I have a perspective on this lent by coming from a family of one-time
great wealth, which is no longer so.
That family sometimes looked down on the "lower classes" and used them
to gain their wealth, regretfully, not always fairly.
Since I now clerk shoes, I look up to everybody.
And I am proud to do my job well, because despite actions that often ran
counter to it, a motto of my family was
"Class knows not wealth, nor should power know arrogance."
I have taken that motto to heart as my family legacy, and it has made me
content in my life.
That does not mean that I cannot rail against inequities that I
perceive, or die fighting to rectify them, but only that I do so with a
peaceful soul.

Peter