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IRL (In Real Life) => Current Events => Topic started by: theejl on November 20, 2012, 09:08:27 PM

Title: What it takes to be a one percenter
Post by: theejl on November 20, 2012, 09:08:27 PM
http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/20/news/economy/top-1-percent/

Not that I am a 1%er, but this line caught my eye:

"There were 1.35 million households that qualified for entry. They earned nearly 19% of the nation's income and paid roughly 37% of its income tax."

My question is, if 1% of the population pays 37% of the income tax, why the demand they pay more?  Why shouldn't the other 99% pay 63% of the rest?  Isn't 37% a "fair share"?

Thoughts?  Maybe I'm missing something here.....
Title: Re: What it takes to be a one percenter
Post by: LongBlade on November 20, 2012, 10:41:06 PM
I'm sure it gets to the heart of the question: how much is enough and and what point are you not allowed to have what you're able to earn?
Title: Re: What it takes to be a one percenter
Post by: Windigo on November 21, 2012, 12:02:02 AM
Quote from: theejl on November 20, 2012, 09:08:27 PM
http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/20/news/economy/top-1-percent/

Not that I am a 1%er, but this line caught my eye:

"There were 1.35 million households that qualified for entry. They earned nearly 19% of the nation's income and paid roughly 37% of its income tax."

My question is, if 1% of the population pays 37% of the income tax, why the demand they pay more?  Why shouldn't the other 99% pay 63% of the rest?  Isn't 37% a "fair share"?

Thoughts?  Maybe I'm missing something here.....

but what % of the total wealth does the 1% make?
Title: Re: What it takes to be a one percenter
Post by: Windigo on November 21, 2012, 12:05:24 AM
nm..... top 1% makes 19% of the income by that article.... seems to me that that seems fair-ish for them to carry proportionately more of the load.... but then I again I am a Flat-tax guy with a GST component...
Title: Re: What it takes to be a one percenter
Post by: LongBlade on November 21, 2012, 12:53:03 AM
Discussion of this won't be in a vacuum.

We could takes 100% of the wealth the top 1% make and it wouldn't fix our budget woes. Put aside the fact that the wealth would simply exit the country - all their wealth wouldn't pay for the programs we have.

Three things are needed to fix the US budget. In no particular order:


Without that the big picture shows it all working against us.
Title: Re: What it takes to be a one percenter
Post by: Longdan on November 21, 2012, 11:12:19 AM
Make the kids PAY!  That's the strategy the greatest generation
left us and we should pass it on.  Somehow, somewhen this
idea of various entitlements to be payed outstripped the money
to pay for them.  Somebody found they could spend money to
buy votes that wasn't even there.  Back in the day when the
gubmint started spending money that wasn't there the trend was
set.  And the Military-Industrial thingy... much of which was financed
out of thin air.  Generations of politicians saw this coming and
made sure it was never dealt with while they were on the payroll.
Even more of those pols lacked the arithmetic skills to even see it.
The first time money was borrowed without a tax hike to compensate,
the first time the Laffer Curve was scrawled on a cocktail napkin......
Anyway nothing can be done about that, it is passed into history.
What needs to be done now is gonna hurt but the kids are gonna hurt more.
Title: Re: What it takes to be a one percenter
Post by: LongBlade on November 21, 2012, 12:28:29 PM
Quote from: Longdan on November 21, 2012, 11:12:19 AM
Make the kids PAY!  That's the strategy the greatest generation
left us and we should pass it on.  Somehow, somewhen this
idea of various entitlements to be payed outstripped the money
to pay for them.  Somebody found they could spend money to
buy votes that wasn't even there.  Back in the day when the
gubmint started spending money that wasn't there the trend was
set.  And the Military-Industrial thingy... much of which was financed
out of thin air.  Generations of politicians saw this coming and
made sure it was never dealt with while they were on the payroll.
Even more of those pols lacked the arithmetic skills to even see it.
The first time money was borrowed without a tax hike to compensate,
the first time the Laffer Curve was scrawled on a cocktail napkin......
Anyway nothing can be done about that, it is passed into history.
What needs to be done now is gonna hurt but the kids are gonna hurt more.

Yup. This train has been decades in the making.
Title: Re: What it takes to be a one percenter
Post by: Centurion40 on November 22, 2012, 12:41:08 PM
These are the only kind of 1%ers that I'll ever encounter:

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.huber-verlag.de%2Fdaten%2Fnewspool%2Fimage%2F4531%2F4531_1.jpg&hash=d9cce242c24aec01f43fc5e1edf5fdc2f37ccf7c)
Title: Re: What it takes to be a one percenter
Post by: Longdan on November 23, 2012, 05:58:22 PM
1% of what?  And whose little brother is that on the right?
Title: Re: What it takes to be a one percenter
Post by: LongBlade on November 23, 2012, 06:00:45 PM
Quote from: Longdan on November 23, 2012, 05:58:22 PM
And whose little brother is that on the right?

It's the little ones you have to be careful around.