How many of you have an income of $250,000 or more per year? How many people do you know who do?
ISTM that most of the people opposed to tax increases on the ‘rich’ are not in that bracket and are unlikely ever to be.
Not me by a long shot, but I bet my dad and stepmom do. But they live in NYC, so it’s not as huge a sum of money there as it would be in the rest of the country.
I bet they wouldn’t have an issue with marginal tax increases on incomes about $250K, anyway, depending on how they were used/implemented.
On a good year, but my 2011 bonus won’t get me there this year for sure. I know lots of people but I live in an expensive area and know lots of double income professionals.
And most people who are against torture are unlikely to ever find themselves in Gitmo. What’s your point?
The reason people who make less than $250,000 are still opposed to higher taxes on those who do is because they are philosophically opposed to higher taxes and bigger government. It’s a matter of principle.
It’s also because they know that politicians keep redefining “rich” downward and downward and that one day it’ll be their turn to cough up almost half their income to support all those who aren’t paying anything, which will more than likely be over half the population since half the population isn’t paying federal income tax now.
I don’t think anyone I know well makes anywhere near that much money. I work at a state university so all our salaries are a matter of public record. I just pulled them up online, and only the university’s president and the men’s basketball coach make over $250k. Even the football coach makes less than $250k, although he is one of only five people at the university making over $200k.
My childhood best friend’s dad is a VP at a large company, and he may make over $250k. I haven’t seen him in years, though – he was a salesman when my friend and I were kids.
Nowhere near.
With my incentive bonus from earlier this year, I tipped the $250K scale for the first time. My incentive is tied to company gross profit so it could be less, or even more, next year. A number of my colleagues earn well more than I, so yeah, I know a few people in this range.
As discussed in a previous, similar thread from a few months back, I don’t consider myself rich by a long shot; comfortable, but not rich. That said, I could easily afford to pay much more in taxes than I do. Although I wouldn’t like it, increasing my taxes by 15 to 20 percent wouldn’t force a change in my lifestyle one iota.
Not even close; I wish. None of my friends are in that bracket although many of my clients are.
My psycho ex did, however (doctor.) He was adamantly, even violently, opposed to anything that would take an extra bite out of the $400,000 or so he made per year.
That’s one reason. However, I think most people are greedy and just don’t want to pay more tax no matter what the reason (eg, not big government per say).
My wag is that a lot of those people also dream one day of making $250k or more, and are protecting their “future” earnings. :dubious:
I’m in the compliance end of the medical field, but I don’t understand this mentality. Yeah, 8 or more years of student loans is depressing while mired in the seemingly insurmountable debt; it took me for-bloody-ever to pay mine back, but once you’re done, your life’s generally good; better than most, so I don’t understand the selfish upset from those making in excess, some well in excess, of $200K, at the prospect of having to pay a little more in taxes.
I don’t know that this is correct, SA. The principle may be a factor for some, but I contend the majority have been duped into believing that it is only a matter of time before they become their definition of “the rich” and want to make sure the gravy will still be there for them when they get there, which is unfortunate as most of these people will never earn more than $50K a year in their entire lives.
Not me, but I believe my step-brother and his wife are just over that limit in terms of combined income. And I can think of a few other couples in the same boat. No individuals though, at least that I know well.
In my brother’s case at least, my understanding is that they are at least reluctantly in favor of tax increases on their bracket.
Yeppers. A while ago, when the Tea Party was just crystalizing, NPR interviewed a regular “Joe” at a Tea Party rally and asked him why he, a middle-class guy, would be in such an outrage if upper income tax brackets were taxed more than they are currently.
“Because one day I might be rich too,” the 40-something-year-old said. It was on radio so I couldn’t see his face, but I’m betting he said this with a fabulous “By golly!” smile.
You see, he thinks the interests of rich people are the same as his, rather than the 90% of the rest of us. Part of me feels sorry (nope, just lied) that people believe this line of bull…that if they dress the part and act the part and make-believe that they are the part, then they actually are the part. But it’s a delusion.
Between us, my wife and I did for a brief while. I was making $150K+ on my own, and she was dragging another $100K. All good things come to an end, however. We never thought of ourselves as “rich”, but certainly didn’t want for anything, and still don’t in retirement.
Alas, no.
Friends of the non-poor parts of my family, and even family – sure. Many of them don’t work at all, or just buy things like dozens of vintage cars and companies for entertainment.
I guess I’d go along with the OP’s contention that tax-free-basers want to do their own little economics without the advantage of Menger’s tutelage just for fun, or because they believe in their little principles.
IIRC, most of the people who pay taxes these days pay 1/3 or more of their income to state and federal income tax, FICA and Medicare. I don’t think I would classify people who want to keep only 2/3 of the money they earn as “greedy”. Further, most of the money that people keep goes to provide the best lives possible for their families and there is nothing at all wrong with that. In fact, it’s admirable.
Sure, some people are motivated to oppose tax increases because they believe one day they’ll have large incomes themselves, but I think for the most part people are simply being whimscal when they say they oppose tax increases because they hope to be rich one day themselves. It’s a quick and easy answer and it avoids the necessity of having to argue politics. Plus I think most people earning 50K or less are realistic enough to know that the likelihood of their someday earning 250K or more is pretty slim.
I think you can take it to the bank when I say that greed or selfishness is the last thing conservatives are thinking about in their opposition to higher taxes and bigger government. We simply don’t want government as uber-parent. We spent our time being provided for and told what we could have and what we couldn’t, and now that we’re adults we want to make our own decisions and take care of ourselves. And that attitude isn’t selfish or greedy, it’s admirable.
I know quite a few in my company that make that much. Oddly enough at the end of August I am losing my job, but none of them are. Call it sour grapes but it still bugs me.
Just thought of another one - oddly enough, a college friend who is now a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. He is also a European-style fiscal conservative, social liberal - I bet he wouldn’t mind if the additional funds were used for something like education or health care.