On Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:02:16 -0700 (PDT), Jonathan Cook
wrote:

On Sep 30, 3:25*pm, wrote:

This is what I don't get - why shouldn't _all_ "business owners" be taxed
equally? *Why should those who do _moderately_ well be taxed more? *Let's be
realistic, 250K is certainly comfortable, but it isn't rolling-in-it-rich - why
not tax 100K or even 50K at 40%?

Lot's of people have described the merits of progressive tax rates.
You can choose to reject those explanations but I accept them.

I don't agree with them, and certainly not to the point that the majority pay
little or no taxes. But even if the US must have progressive income taxes, why
shouldn't it require that everyone at least pony up _something_?

"To whom much is given, much will be expected."

Um, well, apparently not. Much is "given" by the US government, using tax
dollars, and _very_ little is expected of those who receive it (I'm speaking
individuals and "entitlements" - even with the bailouts, something was
expected). And while you may consider your salary as something "given" to you,
I consider what I earn as, well, not given, but rather, earned.

*According to your own description, you spent
decades and only made 25K a year

I didn't say I was the business owner, just that I have personal
experience with it.

True enough, you didn't, but frankly, and I don't mean to start anything here,
if you didn't own it, then your "personal experience" was merely as an observer,
however keenly you observed, and at the end of the day, that's not anywhere
close to having both the responsibility and if any, the reward.

The business provided a living wage to its
proprietors and its employees, but the nature of the particular
business was that there never would be spectacular profits, and
conscious decisions were made to stay small. Money isn't everything in
life.

No, it isn't, but as you said, it was a conscious choice. That should not
exempt them from paying what a larger and/or more-profitable business owner
should pay.

I work _hard_ to earn what I earn

I have no idea what you do or how much you make (and don't really care
to know), and I'm sure that you do work hard; so do 11-year-old
Pakistani brick-makers for their two dollars a day. Frankly I don't
think many of us in the first world _earn_ our pay; yes we get _paid_
it, but that doesn't mean we _earn_ it. Lot's of people around the
world work just as hard and get paid a lot less. That goes for my
salary (public domain if you care to find it), and exponentially so
for the overpaid corporate CEOs we read about in the papers (I'm not
at all implying that you fit that category; like I said I have no idea
what you make).

Good points. To those who make 2 dollars a day, 25K a year is 30-plus times,
much more than your 10 times, what they make, so again, at what point does your
sympathy begin? At what income level should "business owners" by taxed 40% on
their personal income? And what about wage-earners? If someone earns 25K, why
shouldn't they be taxed just like someone who make earns 250K?

Let me ask you this: if I let you set my tax rate, would you let me set yours?
Would you let me set yours after you set mine? You know, sorta like the old
deal about sharing - one person cuts the sandwich, the other gets to pick their
portion first.

TC,
R