Whether the following is an accurate quote or not doesn't matter. But the message should be loud and clear:
Every day, ten men go out for beer OR whatever and
the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed
quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the
owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such
good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the
cost of your daily beer by $20. 'Drinks for the ten
now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we
pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected.
They would still drink for free. But what about the
other six men - the paying customers? How could they
divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is
$3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's
share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would
each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to
reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and
he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
Wealthy people get too many tax breaks (not)
TonyM said: ↑
Whether the following is an accurate quote or not doesn't matter. But the message should be loud and clear:
Every day, ten men go out for beer OR whatever and
the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed
quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the
owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such
good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the
cost of your daily beer by $20. 'Drinks for the ten
now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we
pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected.
They would still drink for free. But what about the
other six men - the paying customers? How could they
divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is
$3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's
share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would
each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to
reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and
he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing
(100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before and the
first four continued to drink for free, but once
outside the restaurant, the men began to compare
their savings. 'I only got a dollar out of the $20,
'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth
man,' but he got $10!' 'Yeah, that's right,'
exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too.
It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I!'
'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should
he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get
all the breaks!'
'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison.
'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits
the poor!'
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for
drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without
him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they
discovered something important. They didn't have
enough money between all of them for even half of the
bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college
professors, is how our tax system works. The people
who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a
tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for
being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.
In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the
atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible!
Click to expand...
rich ppl get taxbreaks that ordinary ppl CANT get.warren buffett's secretary pays more taxes per her income than he does.And they can hide their wealth..............................even lower tax burden.
The individual income tax is highly progressive – a small group of higher-income taxpayers pay most of the individual income taxes each year.
In 2001, the latest year of available data, the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.3 percent) of all individual income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (32.0 percent) of income.
The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 33.9 percent of all individual income taxes in 2001. This group of taxpayers has paid more than 30 percent of individual income taxes since 1995. Moreover, since 1990 this group’s tax share has grown faster than their income share.
Taxpayers who rank in the top 50 percent of taxpayers by income pay virtually all individual income taxes. In all years since 1990, taxpayers in this group have paid over 90 percent of all individual income taxes. In 2000 and 2001, this group paid over 96 percent of the total.
The President’s tax cuts have shifted a larger share of the individual income taxes paid to higher income taxpayers. In 2004, when most of the tax cut provisions are fully in effect (e.g., lower tax rates, the $1,000 child credit, marriage penalty relief), the projected tax share for lower-income taxpayers will fall, while the tax share for higher-income taxpayers will rise.
The share of taxes paid by the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers will fall from 4.1 percent to 3.6 percent.
The share of taxes paid by the top 1 percent of taxpayers will rise from 30.5 percent to 32.3 percent.
The average tax rate for the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers falls by 16 percent as compared to a 12 percent decline for taxpayers in the top 1 percent.
http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/js1287.htmTony, I gotta hand it to you... I love that analogy, I got that handed to me years ago by my father.
I have had the sad experience of having the majority of the people I give it to say "sheesh, yah right:roll:" because they either don't care or don't understand... and they've been taught to regurgitate the same crap... "the rich get all the breaks and the poor get taken advantage of"... self-induced ignorance, and they like it that way so they can keep complaining... with an outstretched hand.
I'm in the 38% tax bracket, and I'm married with two kids... and I love it!
I pay more in taxes in 1 year than my friend will pay in 10 or 12, but he's the one complaining.
Off my soapbox
I mostly just read, roll my eyes and move on when I see something about wealthy people essentially being the root cause of mankinds' problems, but every once in awhile I like to trot out a piece of propaganda myself, then wait for the inevitable knee-jerk reply and then post a fact to back it up;)
The icing on that analogy is in the last line. Some poor people whine, some wealthy people improvise, Darwinism in action.