Plutocracy: If Corporations and the Rich Paid 1960s-Level Taxes, the Debt Would Vanish

Originally posted by Quadrivium
Lol your OP made me laugh. If the rich were taxed now as they were in the 60's we would still be in this mess. The only difference would be that the government would have more money to waste.
Say what you want the rich did not cause this by themselves, no more than the 49% of Americans who don't pay taxes did.
Our government is corrupt David. No matter how much you give them, and no matter from whom you take it, they will always want more.
Ever heard the saying "the rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer"?
Who makes that possible?
Who is actually working to make it happen?
THE GOVERNMENT.
Ask yourself a couple of these questions.........
»How many poor people (not elderly, most of them have worked for a living but were not able to save enough for retirement) has the government actually helped with all of the "assistance" they provide?
» If the most of these entitlement programs actually fail those whom they are intended to help, why keep pouring money into them?
» Why would our government want certain classes of people to stay poverty stricken?
» How will taxing the rich solve our problems? Be honest.
The problem we have is that many in our government want certain people poor, it provides a nice voting base. They fool these people into thinking they want to help, but actually they just want to help themselves.
If you really wanted to help the poor (again, I am not speaking of the elderly or disabled) wouldn't you offer programs that lifted their self esteem and self worth? Help them believe that they can overcome their current situation.
Or would you make it where they just got a check and foodstamps every month? By doing so you would be breaking their self image, making them feel dependant upon others, which leads to them blaming others for their situation. They begin feeling that there is no way out, so why try? They adopt the mentality that the government will provide for them.
Many good hearted people get sucked into this scam as well. They fight for more entitlements for the poor because it makes them feel like they are helping, like they are doing something good. They are led by their heartstrings into condemning these people to a type of modern slavery.
About the only solution left to us is to let the entire system crash and reboot. That and clean house in DC.

I would have to agree on most of this... As a food stamp receiver, and full time employee, I do depend on it to feed me and my daughter. Without it I would have enough to pay the bills and not eat. That being said her mother, my ex, on the other hand is so dependent on the system that she sits around depending on everyone and not making any effort to improve her way of living. While all the while she blames everything/everyone, and knows nothing about much of anything but cooking... Not even sure if she knows who Biden, Palin or Paul is... much less about what and who created this mess and why we are in it. All she cares about is existing. Not realizing by not educating herself, which the government pretends to care about, she is not helping the situation.

Me on the other hand, I am switching all my business credits over to Human Services to become a social worker to get in and help the poor because I know what it's like to have no one on the other side of the desk that gives a damn. I do feel it has made several people dependent and extremely lazy, resulting in poor self esteem and feeling a worthlessness.

Trash the system and offer better job training...

reply to post by David9176

The rich in 1955 paid far more of their income in taxes than today's rich. In 2008, the new IRS data show, the top 400 paid only 18.1 percent of their total incomes in federal income tax. The top 400 in 1955 paid 51.2 percent of their total incomes in tax.

Oh? So that's all there is to it, eh? Just raise taxes on the evil rich! And if we want a budget surplus, all we need to do is extort another 10% from them, right? Riiggghhhtt...


reply to post by OldCorp

Suddenly I'm feeling like BRING IT ON! My family can survive just fine on my skills as a hunter and fisherman. And when I hear about the elites killing themselves I'm going to sit back, munch on my squirrel burger, and LAUGH MY ASS OFF!

And while you're munching on some flea-infested, bacteria laden carcass, the 'elites' are sitting in Le Grill at the Gstaad Palace feasting on Blue Lobster and Salmon Hearts and washing it down with champagne.


You guys are incredible. You think the very rich are going to hang around and wait till you drain every last drop of blood from them?

Craaazy socialists, I'll tell ya!

reply to post by peck420

The top tax bracket circa 1955 was 91.0%.

After loop holes and write offs, the average "paid" taxes was in 51.2% range.

To answer the "unaswerable question" posted above, as to why this can't be replicated today:

It ain't 1955 anymore.

In 1955, it would have taken YEARS to move a corporation's headquarters.

Today it can be done in a matter of days.

Very true. Corporate records and most assets can be transferred overseas over a weekend in many cases. No reason to stay here, where the goal is for the govt to fleece you...

There are countries that will now have very good looking tax rates that the US has FTA's with. That means lots of places with no tariffs to move to.

You may get some argument there (not from me)... There are some on ATS who think that raising tariffs is the way to bring high paying jobs back to the US. Just tax imports till they are uber expensive!

reply to post by Hessling

The following fact was sent to numerous conservative pundits, politicians, and profitseekers:

Based on Tax Foundation figures, the richest 1% has TRIPLED its share of America's income over the past 30 years. Much of the gain came from tax cuts and minimally taxed financial instruments. If their income had increased only at the pace of American productivity (80%), they would be taking about a TRILLION DOLLARS LESS out of our economy.

And a question was posed:

In what way do the richest 1% deserve these extraordinary gains?

This question was not posed in sarcasm. A factual answer is genuinely sought. It seems unlikely that 1% of the population worked three times harder than the rest of us, or contributed three times as much to American productivity. Money earned from tax cuts and minimally taxed financial instruments is not productive income.

Let's take farming as an example:

The real question is, who should the rewards go to? The person who, on his own risk, and with no contract guarenteeing any return on his investment, buys the land and takes all the risks associated with farming such as drought, heavy storms, natural disasters, short growing season, etc. etc., or the person who rides on the tractor that is is provided by the investor, who can go home after only 8 hrs of work with no further worries, and who has a contract for a certain rate of pay?

Who has earned which share of the successful venture, should it succeed?