Thread: Poverty

Originally Posted by clemson357

approximately $680K per year in the late 1990's

And???????

Originally Posted by Decker

They do not get a shitload more. Those that pay income taxes pay the exact same rates for the same pay earned—only if one earns more does the rate increase for that amount. But that is beside the point re AFDC expenditures.

For instance, the working poor and rich pay the exact same rate of payroll tax which funds AFDC. They pay the exact same rate for every dollar earned. Although the rich pay more in absolute terms—b/c they earn more—in relative terms they pay the same 12.4% of earned income. The graded income tax scale has nothing to do with AFDC expenditures.

The text that I put in bold is not correct in reference to AFDC. AFDC is paid out of general revenues of the gov. and from SS/payroll taxes only to the extent that the two are comingled (thank you Pres. Johnson--asswipe).

I did not write the stuff in bold. Yesterday my computer died. I wasn't able to get another till the afternoon. At around 4:20 my business partner (our defacto computer guy) came in to set up the drives and my e-mail and install some software. I'd left the forum open and my statement unsubmitted and left to pick my wife from work and that friggin icehole added the stuff in black.

Why? I was hired to help design retirement plans integrated w/ Soc. Sec.; I've written a law review article on privatization and have been quoted in the state paper on the same. This bus. partner (boss's son) thought, and still claims, that payroll taxes fund Welfare and we have had an ongoing war over it. He's partially right (see above) but claims too much. Anyway, that's the last time I leave any message unattended.

Originally Posted by brogers

some more recent numbers.

"The Internal Revenue Service has released data on tax year 2003 that show the top 1 percent of taxpayers, ranked by adjusted gross income, paid 34.3 percent of all federal income taxes that year. The top 5 percent paid 54.4 percent of the whole, the top 10 percent paid 65.8 percent, and the top quarter of taxpayers paid 83.9 percent."


http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18402

The top quarter pays more b/c they earn more money. Let's see I complain b/c I pay more taxes b/c I make more money. The real topic is that these top income earners want to keep more of the money they make. Who doesn't. The problem with that is that in a graded tax scheme, the different grades of taxation are applied in an equal indiscriminate matter: If anyone earns X amount of income, then they pay X amount in taxes. Now, loopholes and exemptions are other matters.

Originally Posted by brogers

The Top 1% of income earners (comprising about 1 million families) earn about 15% of the total income earned by all wage earners in the United States, yet they pay almost 30% of all individual income taxes.

The top 1% make most of their income in capital gains: stocks, sale of property, businesses etc. Capital gains are taxed differently than earned income. The top income earners do not have to be the top 1% w/ respect to wealth, in fact many in the top 1% take token salaries from the corp. boards they preside over to show what good guys they are.

Originally Posted by Decker

The top 1% make most of their income in capital gains: stocks, sale of property, businesses etc. Capital gains are taxed differently than earned income. The top income earners do not have to be the top 1% w/ respect to wealth, in fact many in the top 1% take token salaries from the corp. boards they preside over to show what good guys they are.

The top 1% are also smart enough to incorporate and enjoy a better tax rate.

Originally Posted by DOMS

The top 1% are also smart enough to incorporate and enjoy a better tax rate.

Yes, those that are successful are generally intelligent too. It is in most cases smart to incorporate...Incorporation...the act of creating a fictional business entity with the same constitutional rights as living person...but more: They are infinite in life, they can recreate themselves through reorganization, they can avoid US taxes by creating themselves offshore, they don't feel pain or need clean air or water but they sure as hell can pollute for profit and best of all they can socialize their own costs of doing business through the gov. and privatize the profit.

I just fell off my soapbox. Got workd to do.

Ah, the evils of the corporation. I agree with quite a few of your points, but like most liberal, you over do it.

Originally Posted by DOMS

Ah, the evils of the corporation. I agree with quite a few of your points, but like most liberal, you over do it.

Exactly which statement about corporations is overdone?

But like most traitorous diabolical liberals, I can't help myself...I guess.

Originally Posted by DOMS

Ah, the evils of the corporation. I agree with quite a few of your points, but like most liberal, you over do it.

Watch the movie called "The Corporation." Best movie ever, and you will have a new outlook on them afterwards...

Everyone one of the abuses that you stated are committed by some, not all, corporations.

That's like saying that because some people are murderers, that all people are murders.

Even then, not every abuse is committed by a corporation that commits any given one.

That like saying just because someone lied on their tax returns they've also committed the crime of drug trafficking. We do not live in an all or nothing world.

Originally Posted by DOMS

Everyone one of the abuses that you stated are committed by some, not all, corporations.

That's like saying that because some people are murderers, that all people are murders.

Even then, not every abuse is committed by a corporation that commits any given one.

That like saying just because someone lied on their tax returns they've also committed the crime of drug trafficking. We do not live in an all or nothing world.

By showing that corporations don't need to breath, eat or drink, or feel pain or be imprisoned, or need health care or retirement benefits etc, I was merely illustrating that corp.s enjoy superior constitutional rights w/out the existant limitations you or I have.

That leads to an accretion of power that you and I do not have. Under the constitution, We The People govern ourselves...Not we the corporations.

I completely agree.

Hey man it isn't something you can simply reply to or explain in a forum or an essay and not everybody that lives in poverty are criminals. But living in impoverished areas can create an air of hopelessness without any positive role models or strong family support you can fall into criminal ways as a means to take care of yourself.. In reality you got to be there to understand man..

Originally Posted by DOMS

I completely agree.