Musings and books

[darthparadox]

The silver lining to the shit-filled cloud
Now that the Republicans have half of Congress, they have to start delivering, or the same wave of populist anger that swept them into the House of Representatives will sweep them right back out again. And I think they're completely incapable of actually getting anything fixed, because the greedy

Comments

[kazriko]

*headscratch

[darthparadox]

I'd imagine that, within the Democratic Party, receiving massive corporate contributions probably correlates strongly with the tendency to defect to the Republicans. I don't really have the time to do the research right now. Suffice it to say, I agree that corporate control of the Democrats is a problem, and the problem is that it's made them act more like Republicans

[kazriko]

They won't pass tax cuts for the middle class without cutting it for the rich because it is unfair to cut taxes unevenly. The old example is of a restaurant that charges people based on their ability to pay. Say there are 10 people splitting the $100 tab. 1 person picks up $40 of the check. The next picks up $20, the next 2 pick up $15, the next two pay $5, and the last 4 pay $0. The restaurant owner finds some deals on his ingredients one day, and ends up only charging $90 instead of $100. Most of those saying that the rich are getting too big of a tax cut would in this situation complain that the rich guy is getting $4 off his bill, while the ones who pay $5 are only getting 50 cents off their bill, and that cuts should be equal... So you should cut costs by $1 for everyone? What about the people who pay $0? Should they get money back for eating there

[darthparadox]

If it's unfair to cut taxes unevenly, why bother with brackets at all? The tax cut for the middle class is removing some of the burden from a group of people with far more need of that money than the rich have. The reason we have brackets is that the less people make, the less of their income they can afford to give up as taxes. And it's clear that the rich can afford to take on far more of the burden of funding this country; the highest marginal tax rates were far higher even under Reagan than at present, never mind during that boom time of the 1950s

[kazriko]

You're debating with me, not the internet, so quit bringing them up. ;) Others may be calling them lazy, but as a libertarian I place the blame squarely where it belongs... With government bureaucrats whose job is to keep as many people on welfare as they can so their budget doesn't get cut

[darthparadox]

I was arguing against the article because you cited it as support for your own positions. I'm glad you don't agree with that particular statement

[kazriko]

I'm not talking about starting a business as much as licensing just for doing certain tasks. Here's a site for some examples. http://reason.com/archives/2010/03/11/the-right-to-work . John Stossel and Reason.tv are good sources for information on this sort of thing

[kazriko]

As for tax brackets, I think they should be abolished alongside all of the special deductions. You can set a floor below which no income is taxed, but past that a flat percentage is better. Income went up despite the tax rate getting cut nearly in half in the 1980's because when they stripped the tax rate down, they also stripped out all of the special exemptions. Those are the things that were making the high rates bearable for the rich and keeping them from fleeing the country. Unfortunately, since they didn't eliminate the IRS and constitutionally ban these sorts of exemptions, those were quickly added back in.

The debate on if income tax in general is a good thing, or if another method of funding would be better is left for another time...