Pretty straightforward question. I make a decent amount of money (certainly not wealthy by US standards though) and I wouldn’t mind paying an extra couple percent in taxes if it meant helping the country get out of debt. What about you? Keep in mind that taxes could be income tax, sales tax, property tax, etc.
Full disclosure: Whenever I do those political compass tests I always come out as slightly liberal/socialist but not too far from moderate.
ETA: If you don’t live in the US, you can pretend you are a citizen and part of one of the parties (or independent), and then explain in your post.
I voted no, because I don’t think the problem is insufficient personal tax revenue. I think the problem is a combination of excessive spending and insufficient corporate tax revenue; neither of which will be solved by taking more money out of my paycheck.
Also, “getting the country out of debt” is not necessarily a good thing. Payments on the US Federal Debt fuel a non-trivial portion of our economy; simply making that disappear is probably not a good thing. Reducing or eliminating the budget *deficit *is a different story; that is almost certainly a ‘good thing’, but I still don’t think that raising my taxes is the best way to go about it.
Certainly, there’s no guarantee that higher taxes will be spent wisely… But…
If taxes are used to improve education, then, almost by definition, they will be serving to improve our society. Plus, just on a “law of averages” approach, a better educated public should lead to a better educated Congress, and that would tend to lead to wiser spending trends.
Yes, but as it stands I already pay more in taxes than companies like GE. So taxes would need to go up across the board for me to agree to it.
By and large getting over this collapse caused by poor financial industry behavior is the most important thing. The deficit was only about 1/4 as big as it is now before the economy collapsed. I think Spain was posting a surplus, now they are about to go bankrupt. So if that gets fixed the tax hikes shouldn’t be that major.
I agree that taxes should go up, or at least loopholes should be closed, for the big companies and industries more than for the average joe.
Personally I wouldn’t want to pay MUCH more in taxes, but I could go for an extra 100 or 200 bucks a year, maybe more honestly.
I think our tax dollars are spent pretty efficiently now, I don’t think there’s a lot of government waste, but I’d really like to see those tax dollars getting spent on social programs to help the lower class.
Taxes are theft. Of course I recognize that we have a pre-existing society to run, and so taxes are currently required. I voted “no” (third-party), but I could see myself voluntarily paying taxes if the extra taxes were (a) specifically earmarked towards debt reduction, and (b) contributions were matched by a (say) two-dollar-per-dollar spending cuts (I don’t mean less growth in spending and calling it a cut; I mean a cut to current and future budgets).
I voted “yes” but mentally include in that indirect taxation on myself such as the typical “If you tax corporations more, they’ll just pass it along” beliefs and the assumption that increased taxes would be part of a more complete package.
I would pay more taxes if the taxes were to improve education and infrastructure supports (roads and bridges, etc.). No if it meant increasing unemployment, food stamps, SSI, etc.
I’m already paying more taxes. The county jacked up our property tax 25% in the past year, and there is no way in Hell our property value has gone up that much. The amount they assessed it for is like 10% more than we paid for it nearly 2 years ago.
If I had any confidence that the money would actually be used for deficit reduction, job creation, poverty alleviation, etc. I might be sympathetic. but a) I don’t; and b) taxes should be raised on corporations and people who make a hell of a lot more than I do.
Our government is bloated, wasteful, and employs a distressing number of Americans. I’m not giving politicians from any party more tax dollars to waste.
Because of the word willing, I’d have to say yes. If the government raised my taxes, would I be willing to pay knowing that the consequence of not paying would be facing legal action? Absolutely.
Do I think it’s a good solution to raise taxes while maintaining a military budget larger than that of every other country put together? Not so much.
We pay over $50k in taxes per year as it is. Add in the $50k per year we’ll be paying in tuition the next few years, to educate my two daughters, so that they can become productive members of society (and pay taxes), and I think we’re contributing more than our fair share to society.
I voted yes, though reluctantly. I’m slightly libertarian, but fully understand and agree with many social programs. I do think that they need to figure out how to do taxes better though, a lot better.
Part of my problem is that I live near DC. I make good money, close to twice what the average American is supposed to make. The problem with that is that it’s a lot more expensive to live here too. The cheapest houses around me, and these are townhomes, are above 300k for the most part. Even rent is in the 1100-1200 range for a one room place. I don’t think I should be paying the same amount in taxes as the person in Oklahoma who is making the same basic wage.
I actually use Oklahoma because my office is head quartered in Oklahoma City. They are on the same GS scale as us and while their wages are lower by a bit, based on cost of living calculators I should be making about $140k to live the same as them. I know some of these people and when they come here they say they don’t want to live here because they have two homes at home, plenty of extra cars and such. I live pay check to pay check.
So If they are going to raise taxes then they need to look at the cost of living too, to just say that you make 100k you pay this much just doesn’t work very well for people living in high cost areas.
Also O’Malley, if you’re going to raise sales tax, beer tax, car tax, car registration and all that other crap, stop telling me how much of a hole we’re in. Same goes for you Montgomery county council, don’t make a ton of money off speed cameras and the new bag charge and say you still don’t have enough money. Stop taking the money and trying to do more.