Quote:
Originally Posted by CochiseGuy
The poor schmuck making only $33,000 a year in hourly wages or salary pays a 25% tax rate, plus social security & medicare taxes on his earnings - which you don't on your bonsues. He can not save up enough on that income to buy a house, so he has no mortgage deduction. He's not married, so no child credits or deductions. He's still paying off the student loan debt, and he worked just as hard as you to get through college. Why should he pay almost twice the tax rate you do just because you and your employer are cleaver enough to structure a large portion of your compensation as capital gains instead of ordinary income?
That's what the Obama tax plan is about - more fair and equitable distribution of the tax burden.
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You're absolutely right that I don't pay those taxes on my bonuses, I still pay income taxes on my salary along with the social security, medicare, and medicaid taxes. I pay all the taxes that 'poor schmuck' pays, and then some. Do you think I make enough to hire a tax lawyer to 'get around' those loop holes? Absolutely not, those types of situations are for the extreme rich that make millions in bonuses, not what I make. Those tax loop holes should be closed, I won't argue with that for one second. I pay more in terms of nominal taxes and tax rates than people do that don't make as much as I do. I'm already doubled taxed because I get paid salary, and also performance (bonuses), something that 'poor schmuck' doesn't have to deal with.
Don't make generalizations about hypothetical people working as hard as I did in college. I took out a shit load in student loans to go to a top 10 business school so that I could work harder than the normal person. That's why I believe I deserve to be compensated significantly more than the normal person. Everybody knows about what they're going to make in a certain field of study, and just because someone picks an area of study that doesn't pay out as well as mine, that in no way entitles them to my paycheck. In my humble opinion anyway.
There is nothing fair about the Obama tax plan for anyone. It's either advantageous for the people who make less, or extremely unfair for the people who make more. Fair is an impractical theory, there are always winners and losers, never a tie. I work hard, and I enjoy it. There is nothing 'fair' about me working the same amount as I do now, and getting paid less for it, just so someone else can have an easier life for taking a 'easier' path in life. We all make our own destiny's and to expect to be entitled to someone else's success is absolutely wrong. That isn't what our country was founded on; it's what we've progressed into thinking out of jealousy. I already give up enough in terms of my free time and my youth to my career, I don't need to be taxed on top of that more so than I already am.
I think we're probably in agreement that the tax loop holes should be closed. What people are failing to understand right now, is that there is already a record number of corporations that are moving abroad, especially offshore and to Europe. Why would increasing those taxes bring those corporations back?