READ VERY CAREFULLY
EXPLAINING OUR UNITED STATES TAXING SYSTEM WITH BEER
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer 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 one 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
beers 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 very 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 DO get the most benefit
from a tax reduction. They also PAY more than the rest. 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.
) "3% of your GROSS income is HUGE. In the top brackets, that is actually more like 6% of your take home." I think people have right to be pissed, scared, or whatever. Just b/c you might be making >350 or whatever as people have noted and that may only account for 3K ("So to end up paying an extra $3000 dollars you have make $350K") doesn't mean folks somehow don't deserve or have not earned this money. They (hopefully we) have an equal right to it as much as someone making <55K and if they had to fork over extra $ for taxes/etc.
I'll vote for you - but this sounds expensive, actually like an expansion of government. where do you get the money to do all of this if you have no taxes?
