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  1. #76
    Andrew Dufresmed Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
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    The college for profit industry is another sham. Oh, but cheap tuition or free school? Socialism. Here's a story of the CEO Cisco systems:



    https://doorcountypulse.com/college-...ootstrap-myth/

    The current price to go to Madison is like over 20K per year. College costs is another fact that debunks the "bootstrap myth." When tuition is that high, only the fortunate can afford to really go without being saddled with a mountain of debt post graduation. The modern Conservative idealizes the 1950s, but really doesn't want to take us back there when: Marginal tax rates were 70-80 percent on income over 250K (which correlated to the most robust middle class in maybe human history). College was relatively inexpensive. 200-300.00 per year. Adjusting for inflation: 2700.00. Eisenhower was proposing a universal health care system.
    then again, when you adjust that 250K for inflation, it's probably a million and change at the very least.


    And back then, college was a lot more optional than it is today. You could get a decent paying office job (with potential to move up ladders) with a HS diploma and a good work ethic back then... now, a bachelor's is required to sniff the inside of an office. Or... you have an "in" with someone or you're a hot and willing chick with a boss who really loves BJ's. But a regular guy with an average social network... tough without that degree.


    I also think college is a big problem. Professors, deans etc aren't quite as greedy as surgeons and insurance company execs, but they're no saints and they piss me off because they're usually left wing but hypocritical because of the large pieces of the pie they take for themselves.

    I think companies should consider more non-college-degreed young candidates for skilled jobs because you can just as easily get a good free education on Google, which also shows that you're a self learner as opposed to someone who gets schoolwork done just for a grade or so their parents don't kill them.

  2. #77
    Got Woke? DMC's Avatar
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    I would say trickle up is what works, in that when the average Joe has more purchasing power, he has more money to buy the cheap (yet expensively price) plastic crap the like of Apple make.
    How did Joe get more purchasing power?

  3. #78
    Andrew Dufresmed Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
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    250K?

    I think you have your numbers wrong. 25K should be more like it and that's for the device, the hospital, nurses, surgeon, anesthesiologist etc. Not saying the surgeon isn't making good money...he probably makes in excess of $500,000 a year but no ing way he is making a million a week.
    Nope, the bill was $256K, my mom is on Obamacare so she paid her $1000 MOOP and the insurance company covered the other $249K + another few thousand in specialists, equipment costs, fees etc.


    I don't know if you understand what's really going on in the merican healthcare profit industry..

  4. #79
    Got Woke? DMC's Avatar
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    Remove the Social Security cap, reinstate the estate tax, treat capital gains like regular income.

    Why should investors and heirs of wealth be treated better than ordinary working folks?
    Because it's already been taxed once. Why tax the same money over and over again? Just because you don't like wealthy people because you're not wealthy doesn't mean they should be punished for being wealthy. You don't want to disincentivize success. Socialist always seem to think success is evil. It's usually the unsuccessful socialists.

    So many people here eager to tax the demographic that they don't belong to. No one here is suggesting raising taxes on themselves though for some reason.

  5. #80
    Andrew Dufresmed Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
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    Remove the Social Security cap, reinstate the estate tax, treat capital gains like regular income.

    Why should investors and heirs of wealth be treated better than ordinary working folks?
    I agree with this, but SS is garbage and should be abolished. People should learn to save.

    The Wealthy Class War LIE is that low capital gains tax encourages investment, but recent PROOF of that LIE is the oligarchy's tax cut resulted in $100Bs of (formerly illegal until Repug legalized them) stock buybacks and almost no capex.

    The UnEarned Capitalists bought low tax rate, while making sure Labor pays earned income regressive taxes through the nose.
    The first 300-400k in capital gains should be free, but it should go up steadily from there

  6. #81
    Mr. John Wayne CosmicCowboy's Avatar
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    I see no reason that online degrees can't be designed and executed to be just as good as 4-5 years of ing around on a physical campus.

  7. #82
    Andrew Dufresmed Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
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    Because it's already been taxed once. Why tax the same money over and over again? Just because you don't like wealthy people because you're not wealthy doesn't mean they should be punished for being wealthy. You don't want to disincentivize success. Socialist always seem to think success is evil. It's usually the unsuccessful socialists.

    So many people here eager to tax the demographic that they don't belong to. No one here is suggesting raising taxes on themselves though for some reason.
    Impoverished (<48k) and lower middle class people should never be taxed above 10%. Also, state income taxes should be abolished.

  8. #83
    Andrew Dufresmed Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
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    I see no reason that online degrees can't be designed and executed to be just as good as 4-5 years of ing around on a physical campus.
    I agree 110%. And it shouldn't cost more than around $1200 a year or so.

  9. #84
    Andrew Dufresmed Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
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    They would play overseas. Team from Saudi Arabia would offer him more than even the Lakers are currently paying
    I thought this was a universal salary cap.
    As long as he is a U.S. citizen, he would have to pay U.S. taxes on all income including overseas income, plus he might face taxes in Saudi Arabia (not to mention possible religious taxes over there).

    He would have to voluntarily relinquish U.S. citizenship to avoid these taxes, meaning he would have to wait years + apply for a visa and begin the regular, and arduous, immigration process to the US if he ever wanted to come back to the US.

  10. #85
    Andrew Dufresmed Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
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    I think the main issue in not being able to convince conservatives in this debate is the way they psychologically project themselves onto the rich, thinking their 100K per year income is somehow equivalent to a 500 million dollar per year income. "Well, I wouldn't want people taking 70% of my money, so it's not fair that I ask Mark Zuckerberg to." I get the logic, but it falls apart when you realize that 100K is not in any way equivalent to 10, 20, 100 million dollars.

    In any other situation, the logic here would be clear. If a starving man walked into Burger King and you saw a fat ass with 12 burgers in front of him vs. a dirt faced kid nibbling on a Chicken Nugget, no sane person would ask the kid to give the starving man anything and ask the fat ass to give up one or two of his burgers.
    I can attest to the fact that my 109K 2018 income (living in Dallas) is NOT rich or upper-middle class by any standards. It's middle-middle-class at best.

  11. #86
    Still Hates Small Ball Spurminator's Avatar
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    Because it's already been taxed once. Why tax the same money over and over again? Just because you don't like wealthy people because you're not wealthy doesn't mean they should be punished for being wealthy. You don't want to disincentivize success. Socialist always seem to think success is evil. It's usually the unsuccessful socialists.

    So many people here eager to tax the demographic that they don't belong to. No one here is suggesting raising taxes on themselves though for some reason.
    Gains have not been taxed already. If I buy a lottery ticket for $2, that $2 comes from my post-tax income. I still have to pay taxes on the jackpot if I win, because that's new money.

    The current system over-incentivizes passive income from investment.

  12. #87
    VanillaPlayerFan BD24's Avatar
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    at anyone trying to engage in discussion with Andrews dumb ass

  13. #88
    4-25-20 Will Hunting's Avatar
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    Because it's already been taxed once. Why tax the same money over and over again? Just because you don't like wealthy people because you're not wealthy doesn't mean they should be punished for being wealthy. You don't want to disincentivize success. Socialist always seem to think success is evil. It's usually the unsuccessful socialists.

    So many people here eager to tax the demographic that they don't belong to. No one here is suggesting raising taxes on themselves though for some reason.
    I'd argue "double taxation" is a reality everyone has to live with and there's no way around it. When I pay sales tax on after tax earnings that I spend, isn't that double taxation? That taxation makes even less sense imo since is disincentivizes the spending that's needed for a strong economy. When a homeowner has to pay property taxes on a home purchased with after tax earnings, how is that not double taxation? Seems like the sales tax and property tax both hit the actual earner of the money that's being "double taxed" harder than the estate tax does, since the estate tax is only hitting the heir who did jack to earn his/her estate other than be born into the right family. The "double taxation" argument isn't consistently applied, it comes across as an arbitrary rule that the wealthy use to justify why their taxes should be lower.

    The ways income is taxed will always need to change with the times (i.e., it became untenable to have no income tax in the country during the industrial revolution), and the era we're in now requires heavier taxation on capital generated income simply because there's more of it than ever before and there's also less labor generated income (if we're looking at it as a percentage of total income). Much of the income-generating work that was done by humans 50 years ago is now done by computers/machines/etc., and there's only going to be more and more human income-generation that's automated. Unless there's a substantial change in tax policy that properly reflects where income is generated then we'll have a country with no middle class to speak of and a government that can't provide the most basic of services.

    Regarding what I pay in taxes, my tax rate for 2018 was effectively 30% (just under 100k of total taxes, including payroll, on 326k of gross income). I'm not exactly starving to death on 226k of after tax income with no wife or kids to provide for, so not complaining about how much I paid, but I don't think I'm the one who should be paying higher taxes when people making millions in capital gains only pay 20% and also when people are inheriting 8+ figure fortunes that are sheltered from virtually any estate tax at all in spite of not doing a lick of work to earn it. Seeing that this country is $21T in debt, I'd be happy to pay more if others were paying more, but as it stands people in my demographic or similar demographics (6 figures of regular income with little to no deductions or exemptions) are the ones carrying the burden and giving the biggest chunk of their income away, in spite of the fact we benefit the least. As it stands I'm already, among other things, making the maximum contribution to a social security program that'll be bankrupt before I ever collect anything and paying for the healthcare of old people and poor people when my healthcare is 100% privately funded, so I don't think it's unreasonable for me to say that I'm paying my fair share

  14. #89
    Got Woke? DMC's Avatar
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    Impoverished (<48k) and lower middle class people should never be taxed above 10%. Also, state income taxes should be abolished.
    No reasons?

  15. #90
    Savvy Veteran spurraider21's Avatar
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    capital gains should just be more progressive than they currently are. i'm fine with them being lower, dollar for dollar, than income tax, because capital gains are derived from risk investments, which are beneficial to the economy. after a certain point, they should level off though

    but the ability to have your earnings reflect as capital gains rather than income is not one that is equally accessible to everybody. its the wealthy that substantially benefit from that ability. steve jobs was a multi billionaire with a salary of $1. a middle class or even upper middle class w2 earner doesnt have that same flexibility

  16. #91
    Andrew Dufresmed Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
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    I'd argue "double taxation" is a reality everyone has to live with and there's no way around it. When I pay sales tax on after tax earnings that I spend, isn't that double taxation? That taxation makes even less sense imo since is disincentivizes the spending that's needed for a strong economy. When a homeowner has to pay property taxes on a home purchased with after tax earnings, how is that not double taxation? Seems like the sales tax and property tax both hit the actual earner of the money that's being "double taxed" harder than the estate tax does, since the estate tax is only hitting the heir who did jack to earn his/her estate other than be born into the right family. The "double taxation" argument isn't consistently applied, it comes across as an arbitrary rule that the wealthy use to justify why their taxes should be lower.

    The ways income is taxed will always need to change with the times (i.e., it became untenable to have no income tax in the country during the industrial revolution), and the era we're in now requires heavier taxation on capital generated income simply because there's more of it than ever before and there's also less labor generated income (if we're looking at it as a percentage of total income). Much of the income-generating work that was done by humans 50 years ago is now done by computers/machines/etc., and there's only going to be more and more human income-generation that's automated. Unless there's a substantial change in tax policy that properly reflects where income is generated then we'll have a country with no middle class to speak of and a government that can't provide the most basic of services.

    Regarding what I pay in taxes, my tax rate for 2018 was effectively 30% (just under 100k of total taxes, including payroll, on 326k of gross income). I'm not exactly starving to death on 226k of after tax income with no wife or kids to provide for, so not complaining about how much I paid, but I don't think I'm the one who should be paying higher taxes when people making millions in capital gains only pay 20% and also when people are inheriting 8+ figure fortunes that are sheltered from virtually any estate tax at all in spite of not doing a lick of work to earn it. Seeing that this country is $21T in debt, I'd be happy to pay more if others were paying more, but as it stands people in my demographic or similar demographics (6 figures of regular income with little to no deductions or exemptions) are the ones carrying the burden and giving the biggest chunk of their income away, in spite of the fact we benefit the least. As it stands I'm already, among other things, making the maximum contribution to a social security program that'll be bankrupt before I ever collect anything and paying for the healthcare of old people and poor people when my healthcare is 100% privately funded, so I don't think it's unreasonable for me to say that I'm paying my fair share
    Excellent post.

    Truth of the matter is, the most financially sound decision for a man who makes good money is to marry a career-oriented, educated woman who makes good money herself, and to NOT have children. It is impossible to get enough tax breaks from having kids to recover and recoup the enormous cost of children. Even if you're not paying for their college or anything else past high school graduation, it's still $250K over ~18 years per child.
    Last edited by Millennial_Messiah; 01-31-2019 at 03:06 PM.

  17. #92
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    As long as he is a U.S. citizen, he would have to pay U.S. taxes on all income including overseas income, plus he might face taxes in Saudi Arabia (not to mention possible religious taxes over there).

    He would have to voluntarily relinquish U.S. citizenship to avoid these taxes, meaning he would have to wait years + apply for a visa and begin the regular, and arduous, immigration process to the US if he ever wanted to come back to the US.
    Do you really think that Lebron James would wait years and go through a regular, arduous process to get into ANY country?

  18. #93
    Andrew Dufresmed Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
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    Do you really think that Lebron James would wait years and go through a regular, arduous process to get into ANY country?
    Nope. Hence why he's a lazy ass that doesn't deserve a penny more than my hypothetical salary cap.

  19. #94
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    Do you really think that Lebron James would wait years and go through a regular, arduous process to get into ANY country?
    Many athletes immigrate to Monaco for tax reasons

  20. #95
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    Unfortunately we've reached the point where it doesn't really matter what tax policy any country has, there will always be another with more favorable conditions for those with the means to use s corps and lawyers to get out of paying. This book hasn't reached me yet but it seems pertinent to share here
    https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&sour...49068247313638

  21. #96
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    I'm pretty sure the USA is unique among industrial nations in taxing its citizens planet-wide

    Taxpayers Living Abroad

    If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien,

    the rules for filing income, estate, and gift tax returns and paying estimated tax are generally the same whether you are in the United States or abroad.

    Your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you reside.


    https://www.irs.gov/individuals/inte...-living-abroad

    Very weird that the Repugs haven't killed this IRS rule




  22. #97
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    That's what s corps are for.. iirc there are tax havens within the US legally anyway

  23. #98
    SeaGOAT midnightpulp's Avatar
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    How did Joe get more purchasing power?
    Less tax burden. The data is out. Since the Reagan tax cuts, middle class wealth has risen a whopping 1.5%, obviously well behind the rate of inflation. It doesn't trickle down, unfortunately.

  24. #99
    Andrew Dufresmed Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
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    Less tax burden. The data is out. Since the Reagan tax cuts, middle class wealth has risen a whopping 1.5%, obviously well behind the rate of inflation. It doesn't trickle down, unfortunately.
    It trickles down only if those (executives) in charge of the money choose to let it trickle down.

  25. #100
    SeaGOAT midnightpulp's Avatar
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    It trickles down only if those (executives) in charge of the money choose to let it trickle down.
    Exactly. As I said, I was once a pure economic Libertarian, but there's too much bull in our modern day economic climate that executives/CEOs can pull to impede the so-called "invisible hand of the market" guiding the wealth to its rightful places. That said, I'm okay with tax cuts for your mom and pop burger joints and hardware stores or whatever, but Big Corp can get ed.

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