The reality of tax cuts.

[Epidemic]

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men -- the poorest -- would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1,
the sixth would pay $3, the seventh $7, the eighth $12, the ninth $18,
and the tenth man -- the richest -- would pay $59.

That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant
every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement -- until one day,
the owner threw them a curve (in tax language a tax cut).

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the
cost of your daily meal by $20." So now dinner for the ten only cost $80.00.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the
first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about
the other six -- the paying customers- How could they divide up the $20
windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?"

The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they
subtracted that from everybody's share, Then the fifth man and the sixth man
would end up being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested
that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount,
and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the
seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man
with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59. Each of the six was better off than
before. And the first four continued to eat for free.

But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man who pointed to
the tenth. "But he got $7!". "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed = the fifth man,
"I only saved a dollar, too . . . It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!".

"That's true!" shouted the seventh man, "why should he get $7 back when
I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "We didn't get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't
show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when
it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late what was very
important. They were FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS short of paying the bill!
Imagine that!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the
tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit
from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy,and
they just may not show up at the table anymore.

Nice one, Ep.

I think CaddmanQ had posted a similiar one last year.

Good to read, nonetheless.

[willy_ph]

That's the problem with society. There is a great inequality between those who make the most and those who don't. Therefore, we should not be concerned with tax cuts, but rather reducing inequality in society. It would prevent the richest man from getting his ass kicked.

The problem does not reside in the tax system, but in the society.

[PSU2Fan]

go Willy!

[OuTpaTienT]

Originally posted by willy_ph
That's the problem with society. There is a great inequality between those who make the most and those who don't. Therefore, we should not be concerned with tax cuts, but rather reducing inequality in society. It would prevent the richest man from getting his ass kicked.

The problem does not reside in the tax system, but in the society.

What?

LOL. That's some serious psychobabble if ever I heard it.

[Theophylact]

Hey, Epidemic, who are you quoting from? (Can't be your own stuff; it's spelled correctly! )

[willy_ph]

Out, i'm saying that disagreement over tax cuts arise because there is such a big gap between the rich and the poor in society. I'm implying that tax cuts aren't the solution to the problem. The problem is inherently systemic and as such it is the system or society, not the policies, that must be changed. Tax cuts are not the way to reduced inequality.

[OuTpaTienT]

Giving back money that was unjustly taken from people, be they rich or not, is certainly not going to hurt the problem.

Inequality is a fact of life. I don't want to live in a Socialist society.

[PSU2Fan]

Out, socialist or Communist?? Becasue in reality socialist societies do not exist. All communist nations begin as socialists, and ultimately end up as Communist. IMO, socialism is great, but unachievable.

What do you mean by "giving back money that was unjustly taken from people"? Are you saying taxes are unjust??

[osprey4]

Originally posted by willy_ph
That's the problem with society. There is a great inequality between those who make the most and those who don't. Therefore, we should not be concerned with tax cuts, but rather reducing inequality in society. It would prevent the richest man from getting his ass kicked.

May I challenge the notion that financial inequity is a symptom of social inequality? Our society does as good a job as any of giving all people an equal opporunity, but the fact is that people take advantage of their opportunities differently, and there's nothing we can do about that.