Republican Tax Cuts For The Rich And The Debt Crisis

Like I said, you said it so you should own it.

 

A nice smear job on teachers.

So what? Other workers want to bargain collectively.

Teachers are a mob?

Because joining forces gives them better bargaining power. It's the same reason businesses form trade associations, chambers of commerce, churches form larger denominations, and states join into countries.

Is that why you're going to leave your money to the National Rifle Association?

 

I'm talking about raising taxes on people making far less than I do. How can that be envy?

 

You claimed I was in the group who think the country is on the right track. I'm not.

 

Most Americans are aware that Republican efforts to make the rich richer have led to the explosive growth of the national debt.

 

I'm referring to your use of my response to someone else. I have no idea what your conversation was.

 

The call to tax the wealthy even more has been going on for decades, long before the 'explosive growth' so perhaps looking at spending should be the priority? Not that all the government hand outs could have anything to do with the debt growth, hmmmm?

 

both parties-but especially the democrats-buy votes by promising the masses goodies paid for by taxing others

 

why is it that so many of the ultra rich are democrats?

 

you're a billionaire? they often want the top one percent to pay more.

 

And yet you favor all of the policies that put us on the wrong track, which you claim are the right policies.

 

I don't see your point, frankly. As an economist, I'm concerned about what people make.

 

For use in a different environment. Concern and statistical deployment are not the same thing.

Using that information as a means test for additional discriminatory taxation? That was a nice two step, but rather obvious.

 

You think I'm only talking about raising taxes on billionaires?

So, how come the top 1% pay so little if they even want themselves to pay more?

 

"Additional discriminatory taxation" means what? This seems to imply rich people are being discriminated against and concern about how much rich people make is a stalking horse for even more discrimination against rich people.

The real median wage has been flat for forty years while output per worker has more than doubled. As a citizen, I'm concerned that support for our political and economic system will continue declining.

 

What policies are those? Here's what I wrote...

"I'm a monetarist and my concern is with good, old fashioned waste. Inflation has been under control for three decades--well, until covid. We've still had plenty of waste, so I'm not as concerned with inflation as with the nature and amount of the spending.

The spending is driving inflation now because too much money is chasing too few goods, so Biden should do something. We can take demand out of the system by tightening credit, cutting spending or raising taxes.

I think we should include a surtax on high incomes who made out well in the stock market (people like me). What we're doing now is putting reducing aggregate demand on the backs of folks who need to borrow money. We flooded the system with money, so let's be sensible about ending the growing impoverishment of lower- and middle-income wage earning types. The run-up in home prices had made mortgage payments/rent more than people can afford.

We have a huge homeless problem and all of the people on the street aren't drugged out criminals. I've been up and down the West Coast which seems to have the worst of it. Cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, LA--this can't go on much longer without someone doing something."​

Paragraph 1 above is concerned with government waste. Paragraph 2 is about the cause of inflation and a suggestion we need to take demand out of the system by tightening credit, cutting spending or raising taxes. Paragraph 3 talks about a surtax on people like me who made out quite well...



... over the past few years. The surtax would be a temporary measure as was the pouring of money into the economy that caused the steep rise in wealth. Paragraph 4 is about the homeless crisis that is overwhelming West Coast cities. Maybe you don't live in or near a big city with a homeless population and don't think it's a big problem.

What policies do you think I'm proposing that would justify the rather obtuse comment that I'm happy with the policies we're pursuing now? For that matter, what makes you think I support Trump's policies that resulted in no more growth in Trump's first three years (before covid) than Obama's last three?

 

OK, and whose paying the interest on that debt See how I didn't say LOANS, that's because we never pay on the principal! The interest payment is a suckers game in any world we live in



Concerning

 

you are ignoring reality. the top one percent pay 40% of the income tax.

 

They're still amassing wealth while many low-income people can't cover basic necessities.

 

gee , winners win, losers don't. Duh. anyone who makes more than they spend will amass more wealth

 

Then, maybe they should look at what they're doing wrong. I recently read that a large portion of the bottom 20% don't work or even LOOk for work. The hand-outs from government can total up to $48k. Also, read the the poverty rate for a nuclear family, e.g, a married couple with one or two kids in around 5%

 

Some are motivated by noblesse oblige. Most are liberal on social issues.

 

the second one is probably accurate-and of course, some are control freaks and figure more government means more power for them. there also is another theory that the late Ray Powell (economic professor at Yale) noted-he noted the ultra rich found it more efficient to deal with other ultra rich entities so they often supported the government concentrating wealth

 

The Second World War ended in 1945. The U.S. national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) was 114%. President Carter's last year in office was 1980. At the end of that year the national debt as a percentage of GDP had declined to 32%.

https://www.thebalancemoney.com/national-debt-by-year-compared-to-gdp-and-major-events-3306287

The decline continued during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. During this time the top marginal tax rate never got below 70% and was often much higher.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02inpetr.pdf

President Reagan reduced the top marginal tax rate to 28%. During his last full year in office, 1988, the national debt as a percentage of GDP had grown to 50%.

It declined slightly under President Clinton, but it grew under President's Bush II and Trump. During Trump's last full year in office, 2022, it had grown to 129%. After two years of President Biden it declined to 123%.

 

Making an objective observation is not a smear job. You think teachers are gods and should be worshipped. Well, they as human as any other group.
I have read about folks that want to bargain collectively. They are too weak to make it on their own. Its as simple as that.
Unions are mobs... teachers' unions too.
Chambers of commerce help consumers learn about the reliability of its members. My church is a stand-alone church. I have never worked for any company that belonged to a trade association... they never needed such baggage. Our states joined together to raise a military that could rid us of tyranny.
Have yiu ever even KNOWN anyone that was a success in life all on their own? Gees....