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Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

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Re: Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you get double screwed? You would only pay income taxes on the gains.

the corporation also pays taxes on the income before distributing it to you.

Not if you're Apple, et al.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/business/yesterday-outrag...

Re: Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why our two-party political system needs to change. It's proven inadequate to reflect the people in a nuanced enough way.

The problem is a strong multiparty system can get fringe elements in power. We also, need to rank candidates: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ranking-candidate...

> The problem is a strong multiparty system can get fringe elements in power.

But as demonstrated, a two-party system can (will?) eventually lead to polarization, causing one of the only two options in the system to become a fringe element, and unfortunately the only option the people have now are the democrats or a party of right-wing extremists who are anti-woman, anti-poor, anti-education, anti-science, and white supremacists, all while lying about anything they can to make people afraid of anything that will drive them to vote Republican.

In other words, a multi-party system might end up with fringe elements, but we've proven that the two-party system can not only do that but effectively force a huge number of people to vote for that fringe element.

Re: Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

#73
post #3

Makes my blood boil reading this, especially how poor republicans who have the most to gain through tax reform are consistently voting against their interest.

If a politician promises to take ALL of the rich people's money and give it to me, would I be voting "against my own interests" if I thought that was a stupid idea which would result in more problems for myself and others? Adjust "ALL" to some other high percentage and it's the same idea.

Re: Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But poor republicans have often a religious obligation to vote republican. So do you vote democrat to get more money and fail your religious obligtation? Or do you vote repblican to fulfill your religious obligation at the cost of some rich guys getting richer? Not all people vote through an economic lens. Many othet lenses exist. Religion is just one of them. You could replace religion with gun rights. Or states rig…

This is why our two-party political system needs to change. It's proven inadequate to reflect the people in a nuanced enough way.

This sounds like perhaps the top fix, to get my personal view better represented.

But then I see how coalition governments work in other places. I am not sure that is overall better? Better in some ways, but I think it has a lot of downsides also.

Re: Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

#75

"Taxing investors less is really not what the U.S. needs now,” Saez said. “Instead, we should focus on trying to rebuild middle-class wealth” by encouraging families to save for retirement and pay down mortgages." How do you encourage families to save for retirement? isn't a lower tax rate on investment income a way to do that?

FTA “There is little empirical evidence showing that taxing investors less stimulates savings and growth,” said Emmanuel Saez, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley.

Re: Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

#76
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the progressive tax structure that's the problem, it's the fact that cap gains are taxed at a much lower rate than other forms of income.

capital gains is the leftover of profit after tax. taxing capital gains is taxing profit twice. in my opinion, for a clean treatment of value taxation, either corporate tax or capital gains tax must go.

No, I don't see it that way -- Taxing dividends is taxing profit twice, not capital gains. Capital gains is taxing asset appreciation.

Re: Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

#77
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selecting a bad company is a pretty big risk. It may do a lot of damage to your career from which you potentially never can come back. The opportunity cost is pretty high. I don't believe capitalists take more risk or should get preferential tax treatment.

it's not just capitalists who get a lower tax on investment income - it's everyone.

It's a little skewed towards wealthier people, don't you think?

Re: Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

#78
post #3

Makes my blood boil reading this, especially how poor republicans who have the most to gain through tax reform are consistently voting against their interest.

It makes my blood boil (ok, not really boil) that this is such a frequent talking point. People vote from a complicated set of principles and interests of which immediate economics is just one member.

If you can't figure out why poor republicans don't vote in their own interest, perhaps it's your understanding of their interests that's flawed. Maybe they're not stupid; consider that maybe you don't know anything about their interests and motivations.

In short: if people keep doing something that you don't understand, maybe it's time to take a step back and admit that you don't understand it (instead of surmising that they must be idiots).

Re: Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

#79
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vote. Run for office. Become active in politics. That is the only way these problems get fixed. EDIT: Start small. All politics are local. Run for city council, or some other form of local government. Work towards change. Network. Expand your reach as you become comfortable in your role. My contact info is in my profile if you want a step by step guide.

Don't you need a lot of money to run a successful campaign. And we all know what that means. Which means, selling your soul to local corp.

The amount of capital you need increases somewhere between linearly and exponentially as you move closer towards federal office, which is why I suggested starting with local politics (which costs almost nothing to participate in; selling your soul is not required).

You can run a local office campaign for under $1000.

Re: Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors

#80
post #70
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you link to any "for dummies"-type resources that show how you can incorporate and use that corporation to reduce your taxes? Something that would hopefully be applicable to your typical middle-class homeowner in their 30s with young kids and a 9-5 making enough to get by but is looking for any edge they can find? Edit: (in the US)

Start by getting paid on a 1099 instead of a w2

Which means immediately higher taxes because you get to pay the employer side of payroll taxes, plus no pretax benefits like health care and no vacation or other untaxed benefits.
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