The poor can’t afford that kind of PR.
Almost 30% of the Forbes 400 knows how the other 98% of America lives. They were once poor themselves, the other 70% read about it in school.
Or tie tax cuts/tax raising based on quality jobs created and maintained.
i.e. if you actually increase the amount of jobs that you pay for, you get a tax decrease. If you don’t, you don’t. If you are responsible for jobs then cut the number of them you get a tax increase. If you are responsible for no jobs directly, taxed at 90%.
Our unabashed admiration for your acute intelligence notwithstanding, we might like some sort of substantiation for what appears to be a bald assertion pulled right out of your ass.
At 250K you would be on the verge of being rich in many places in this country as well, even by your above criteria. It’s partially a class thing in that many 250K earners could afford several items on your above list, (although not all,) but choose not to. Heck, Sam Walton drove an old pickup and Warren Buffett still lives in a non-mansion in Omaha (AFAIK) and no one can say they weren’t/aren’t rich.
So I think the average American is intelligent enough to understand that rich does not mean “lives like my thoughts on what an upper-class person should live like”, but rather “has enough money to live like an upper-class person”, even though making 250K will not be enough to afford all of the trappings, but merely some.
Adding before posting: heck, I could even afford several of the above on the list and I don’t even break $100K. I think that if I stopped saving for retirement I think I could drive a Porsche, own a summer home, and always fly first class (I only fly once or twice a year anyway.)
This has to be a huge exaggeration.
“A report filed by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation on April 29 determined that 51 percent of American households owed no federal income tax in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available. In fact, the study found that 30 percent of the nation’s taxing units – individuals, families and various other categories – actually made money off the income tax system.”
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/jul/23/no-headline---ev_taxes/
Median household income is at least 30K. When I had an income of around 17K in the late 90s, I certainly paid income tax (and did not receive anything back by formal government programs such as any form of welfare or EITC). I doubt taxes have fallen so much since then that a greater inflation-adjusted income will result in paying no tax at all, since I paid even at that time a couple percentages of my income in income tax, even if we ignore social security and medicare taxes, which we shouldn’t in my case, because I’m not going to get any of that back so it should certainly count as a regular income tax.
So I was paying an effective %10 plus of my income in taxes, even more if you take into account my employers share of SS.
A while back during the protests in Wisconsin when the right wing talkers were bitching about how much teachers made, the Daily Show ran this bit, which showcases the Fox News Douchebags TM talking about how hard those making over $250,000 will have it if the Bush tax cuts were to expire.
Relevant Daily Show clip:
Wiki has it at $44,389, with 25%+ at 75K or more and 15%+ at 100k or more.
How is that even possible?
Mightily surprised that one of your own alleged intelligence has such a short memory. It’s been talked about any number of times on this very board, and in threads I’m sure you’ve seen. Still, I went to the trouble to find a proper leftie cite so you can’t pretend it’s wrong because it’s reported by Fox or linked by Drudge. To wit:
And on preview I see that The Other Waldo Pepper has it covered as well.
Now, given that you apparently find something wrong with that scenario otherwise you wouldn’t have challenged me on it, does this information have the slightest impact at all upon your opinion of the way people are being taxed (or not) in this country?
I’ll wager “no”, myself. But who knows, maybe you’ll surprise me.
Earned income tax credit. However, in many of their cases, if they are young, they are actually paying a net positive amount of money in effective income taxes because even though they get back some money from the income tax per se, they pay into the Social Security and Medicare fund and will receive nothing back when the system breaks.
This would be true for my mom if she were young. She pays little or less than nothing in income taxes (but is close to even, at an income FAR less than the median, and with one dependent.) But when you take into account the other payroll taxes, she pays into the system rather than takes out. But she is close enough to retirement that she will actually collect.
Its crazy but I guess its true. I qualify for 8 (EIGHT!) exemptions from federal tax…one for myself, two for two dependents, one for having over $1800 in day care expenses, and then FOUR more exemptions for the two dependents again for earning under $61k a year within the child tax credit.
That’s a lot of exemptions. I guess there’s more people like me than I thought, but I don’t get a tax refund at the end of the year, either.
Didn’t ask if the “50% pay no Federal Income Tax” was accurate. Asked you to prove the scenario of lavish living you offered. Should I type slower? Would that help?
I’m glad that you feel free to have such strong opinions about something that you know nothing about. Is that a giggle at the end of your post?
The fact is you are simply wrong.
Do you have to ask?
Really? Because I kinda feel like Nostra-fucking-damus right now. To wit:
In the same thread even! Even for batshit crazy, that’s a new record.
I think there’s an important distinction to maintain between crazy and stupid. Oh, don’t get me wrong - a good argument can be made for Starving for Attention being both. It’s just that in this case, I think it’s more of the latter than the former. Here, he was simply hoist on his own retard.
Point.
Now, let’s see how long it takes for SA to come in and snidely point out that he was talking about people with TVs who don’t pay income tax and not who are on food stamps like quixotic suggested, and therefore don’t we feel stupid, ha ha.