What Would You Do?

If the system is unsustainable, then they wouldn't be making half their income without it, so they might as well pay now while they still can.

Nobody makes their money in a vacuum. Nobody. In order to make a large pile of money in America, you need the entire system. You need the military that keeps you safe from foreign invaders, you need the public education system that gives you an educated work force and a well-paid customer base, you need the infrastructure that keeps either your business or others that you depend on viable, you need the stability and lack of crime that only happens in a society where almost everyone is fairly happy with their lot in life.

Without the *entire* system, nobody could be as rich as they are.

(and who are these people who pay half their income, and why do they have such crappy accountants?)

 

Warren Buffett challenged those hypothetical people to prove they paid more taxes than their receptionists.

Offered a million dollars to anyone who could.

No one took him up on it.

Curious, no?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/21708265/

 

So how much more is it fair to ask people to pay? I'm legitimately curious. Where is the line drawn?

How much can we give? They only ask for more, more, more ...

 

"Several argued that Buffett isn't taking estate taxes into account. Casino owner Phillip Ruffin (Tied at #220 with $2.1 billion) told Forbes, "He is forgetting about the 55% estate tax at death that goes along with making the money. Maybe he is getting senile?"

Um, how can you be paying taxes, WHEN YOU'RE DEAD?

 

If you plan on passing on anything to your relatives, that money comes off the top.

 

Zeke, Rick.....there are millions of Americans that would consider you "wealthy", why don't you just pay more taxes to help them out? Think of the guy that has to work 2 or 3 jobs to support his family and doesn't have the time to post 30,000 times on a message board. If you paid more taxes, he could quit one of his jobs.

 

Fine, but you can't take the money with you.

A rich person is not paying taxes when he's dead. His estate is.

 

I'm cool with paying whatever taxes the democratic process says is necessary. You won't hear me whining about it.

 

well pay more now, you can volunteer to pay more taxes...no one is stopping you. It's an option in the democratic process.

 

Okay. You've obviously got some sort of pre-canned routine that comes up whenever taxes are brought into a conversation, because it's clear you haven't read anything I've posted and are just playing mad-libs.

 

Let's try this again:

By forcing a progressive scale by which people pay more as they make more, you can afford to create a society in which everyone, including the rich who are paying high taxes, makes more money and has a better life than they would have without it. Without this society paid for by progressive taxation, they wouldn't be a quarter as rich as they are.

So what does my personal tax rate have to do with it, let alone volunteering to pay etra?

 

Essentially, his kids are. Which is a crying shame. Because the money they are receiving HAS ALREADY BEEN TAXED ONCE.

The estate/death tax is a crime. It should be illegal.