How much of our money goes to taxes and from what source do you believe. Maybe some of you recently saw someone describing the pitfalls of a national sales tax. 
In that piece, the criticisims of what will happen and what it will cost, almost surely prove how much we pay at present, to keep our government officials in the lap of luxury, while they throw away our hard earned money and at the same moment, they say we pay the least in taxes. LOL
These kinds of statistics are always themselves subject to debate, but anyhoo:
(I’m sure there are better statistics around.) The general consensus is that the US does have a lower rate of tax than other industrialised democracies. My own view is that this ‘penny pinching’ attitude means that the US is getting vastly less value from what it spends its taxes on.
Do you know if that includes ALL taxes (state and local) or just federal?
You might want to explore the GQ forum (for questions with a factual answer) and the BBQ Pit (for ranting). Your OP is a combo of those two.
Why don’t you give us your stats to back up your claim instead of just a “LOL”…
This is really funny, when the Syndicate allows this much to be told, to keep the consumption tax from going thru. Would they not be liable for such ignorance, if his words were false? If that is true, you will see where he shows that with such a tax, that to equal what we have now, we as Americans would have to pay much more that 50% at the point of the sale, so in essence, he is saying, that Americans right now, are paying way more than 50% in taxes, while this government makes it seem far less and this government claims we pay the least in taxes, by comparison to countries with national health care and their citizens for years have had at least a months vacation every year and many other such things. Hey, lets not forget that we pay somewhere near 3 times the rate for drugs.
Could you say that again, a little more coherently? I hesitate to ask in case I am compelled to invest in aluminium foil haberdashery, but who is the Syndicate?
I’m not sure, JM - I do know that UK VAT and Council Tax are very high also by comparison. I’d be very surprised if our overall tax rates were that similar.
LOL, creators syndicate. They hearld such writers and journalists, such as, Bruce Bartlett, Molly Ivans and a host of other journalists. Their works are syndicated thruout the national media.
I see. And what is their central premise? Do you agree with it? Why do you LOL so much?
Your cite, SentientMeat apears to be only the federal budget (click on the Unites States link and you’ll see it is based on a roughly 2 trillion dollar budget). According to what I have seen (cites below) the States take a similar bite out of the economy. So, the feds take roughly 20% and the states take roughly another 20%. However, there may be similar issues with the numbers calculated for the other countries.
This OECD cite shows teh United States at 29th with tax revenues of 31% of GDP and expenditures at 36%of GDP.
Having looked up this cite, however, I am not inclined to continue a discussion of the “syndicate”.
Bartlett claims we pay much more than 50% in taxes right now and he further details that, by how much we would have to pay at the point of sale, if we had a consumptive tax.
I enjoy laughing, that’s why the LOL.
So you are suggesting that after income tax, property tax and tax on purchases, everyone in the idustrialised democratic world actually pays about the same level of tax? Help us out here: What is your position for debate?
I think he’s talking about Bruce Bartlett’s opinion column today.
Bartlett is comparing US and European economic figures and argues that Europe lags behind the US, because Europeans work less hours, and Europeans work less because European tax rates are so much higher. Therefore, there’s no benefit to the employee in working longer hours. I think that’s what Boyscout is talking about when he mentions Bartlett in post 5.
As for the Creator’s Syndicate, while Bartlett is a member, and while most of the columnists who are members of the Creator’s Syndicate tend to be right wing, the syndicate just handles licensing and negotiates with newspapers for its members. It doesn’t have any control over the content of comics or opinion pieces, so I don’t know why they were even mentioned. Here’s their website, if you’re interested, though.
That’s lagging behind?
LOL!
I’m sorry, I phrased it incorrectly. He means lagging behind in productivity and per capita income, and that the reason this is the case is because of shorter working hours.
That’s only part of it. The other part is, that we pay far more than 50% in taxes and we pay at least 3 times more for our medicine. This government does not give out the actual amount we pay in taxes, so as to hide the realities from the public. In other words, the government lies again and again and again and again, to the destruction of the US and when it happens, it will come as a storm, all at once and all these lying experts, will have helped to destroy this entire nation. Thinking of you for one, Jurph. LOL
Addendum!
By the way, the entire state of Israel is a welfare state and we give them 14,000 of aid for each and every family in that country.
We’ll need a cite for that, and while you’re at, how about at least giving a precise number. How much more than 50% do we pay?
No one here will debate you unless you support your claims with factual evidence.
Oh, for heaven’s sake. Neurotik showed that to be false (along with many other statements of yours) in this thread (post #65).
Zev Steinhardt
I was wondering when you’d get around to blaming things on “the Jews”. You’ll beed something a little more origianl than that. Do you think it hasn’t been tried around here before?