mmarsh
Active member
In a word? YES. Espicially frustrating to the soldier when he remembers that the Blackwater mercenary and the US Soldier have exactly the same employer.
MontyB
It is the role for the government to create the conditions, but it needs funds for it to do so right? That goes back to what I was saying make those who have already profited immensely from the system be the ones who pave the way for others to do the same. What bugs me the most about the wealthy is not that they are wealthly, but the idea that their wealth absolves them from all responsibilties to the rest of the community. That is the very definition of entitlement. Only Aristocrats think they are entitled to something and we dumped our aristocrats out 200 years ago.
Why is a flat tax bad? Flat Tax Champion Steve Forbes (worth about $430 Million to date) proposed a 17% Flat Tax. Senator Dick Armey proposed a 22% Flat Tax Now most economists say that Forbes numbers would drive the US into bankruptcy and that the true number is about 25-27% just so the US government stays solvant. But we will use Forbes as an example.
The average US salary is about $40K, thats in the 22% tax bracket, the wealthest Americans those that make 1.6 Mil are in the 35% bracket. The poorest Americans those making $8000 are in the 10% Bracket
http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm (I am using a single person as an example)
So to summerize if we go to a 17% Flat tax this is what will happen:
The Rich+Very Rich will pay 17% Less taxes
The Upper Middle Class pays 10% less
The Middle Class pays about 4% more taxes
And the poorest Americans will pay a huge <7% more taxes (depending on how much they earn)
Needless to say its a huge
Finally, here is a list of countries that currently use a flat tax, as you can see its made up of either very tiny economies or countries (like in Eastern Europe) which have enormous fiscal gaps between the rich and poor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_tax
- BIH [25]
- Bulgaria [16]
- Albania [17][18]
- Czech Republic[19]
- Estonia [20][21][22]
- Georgia [22][23]
- Guernsey [24]
- Kazakhstan [25]
- Iceland [24][26][27]
- Iraq [29][30][31]
- Jersey [32]
- Kyrgyzstan [24]
- Latvia [22]
- Lithuania [22][33]
- Macedonia [24][34]
- Mongolia [35]
- Montenegro [36]
- Mauritius [24]
- Romania [22]
- Russia [22][37]
- Serbia [38]
- Slovakia [22]
- Ukraine [22][39]
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=2471&kaid=125&subid=163
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