(03-30-2022 10:30 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(03-30-2022 10:26 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(03-30-2022 10:18 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(03-30-2022 10:02 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(03-30-2022 08:18 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  I am very interested in making sure everybody pays their share and I applaud efforts to limit workarounds so that the very wealthy can't pay a lower percentage than others.

The thing about my plan or Ham's, is that nobody's "fair" share is zero. We are literally all pulling together to fund our government. Who can find fault with that?

As for the "very wealthy", where do we draw that line/those lines? My liberal 26 year old nephew who came to me for tax advice was not happy to learn he was now one of the rich, merely with the addition of a $17K scholarship for working in a lab at grad school. Whenever stuff like this happens, I am happy, as it gives me hope that little nudges like this will eventually make him more red than blue. It worked with me.

BTW, the 20% floor still allows them to pay less than others, who may be paying much more than 20%. The aforementioned nephew is paying 22%.

Just because somebody has 100x the wealth of Citizen A does not mean he has 100X the income. He might have even less income than somebody who works for a salary. There is a very tenuous relationship between wealth and income. Income is not proportional to wealth, not should it be. But the everyday citizen does not understand that.

But the politics of envy and jealousness are quick to smudge over the concepts of income and wealth in pursuit of the sweet power it affords those who preach it.

Last year for me was *precisely* what you speak of above.

For me, it varies year to year. My retirement income is relatively low, probably lower than Lad's salary - but in any year that I sell real estate, I am one of the higher "earners". So I move from "poor" to "rich", without any change in my "wealth", and the next year, back to "poor".

I can understand how somebody with no education can not understand this - but Rice grads?

I believe everybody here understands this concept. What makes you think some don't?

Statements like "I applaud efforts to limit workarounds so that the very wealthy can't pay a lower percentage than others."

If they pay 20%, they will be paying a lower percentage than many others.