It's not the same. Theirs' is investment income. Why pay max tax twice? Here's a clue. Save your money and benefit from lower capital gains taxes rather than crying about those that did.
If a person is smart enough to take the money he earns and then invests it ,Why should he have to pay any taxes on it?He paid the taxes on it when he earned it.Now he has bought a house and the house has gone up in value and he sells the house .He has taken his money and put it to work for him.why penalize him for that?He has taken the money he earned after his payroll taxes were deducted and has invested this money in stocks.The stocks have now gone up.Why penalize someone for that? just because billy bob takes his money and spends all of it and then some running up massive credit card bills and has nothing left to invest is that the fault of the guy who does make the most of his money ,and puts that money to work and yet you want a piece of that,too.You got your share of that money when he earned it .
But did they work for it? They may have earned the principal, but the interest, capital gains, and dividends they continue to make are "unearned runs" to rob a phrase from baseball. They do not add a bit to American productivity. You aren't paying attention. Depriving the idle rich of special treatment is not punishment except in their own privileged minds. Snide derision sounds like envy to you? :huh: Why do you defend billionaires attempts to pay less than you do in taxes? You want to talk about envy . . . :lol:
I save just fine thank you, I'm well diversivied in IRA, 401, ESOP as well as a defined benifit retirement (something the younger employees at my company don't have, I guess by your figuring, it's their fault their younger and hired in later) And that's my point, I worked damn hard to get where i am, but some people worked just as hard or harder, and because their either younger, or a little less lucky (and you have to have little luck to) are not reaping the benefits that I did.
Their "work" was in investing the money and their "earnings" are the benefits of that work. And I'm sure financial Institutions the world over are grateful for the "productivity" of that American money.
Be careful, SF. We may have to call in Judge JohnLSU to determine if you're being fair to your brother-in-law...
If a person is smart enough to work & earn money, why should he be penalized & have to pay any taxes on it? He hasn't paid taxes on the gains from it, which our government helped him get via infrastructure & regulation. Taxes are not a penalty. They are a fact of life. The government must collect money for a nation to succeed. Perhaps Billy Bob only makes $25k/year & no matter how frugally he lives will not have the disposable income to invest - some people just can't afford to invest. It takes every dollar that they make to survive.
I have absolutely no problem with it being their money. It sure as hell doesn't bother me because I fully expect to be that wealthy. They get a paycheck just like me. We are both entitled to our money, but the government still has to take their share & I see no reason they should take a larger percentage of mine.
I disagree here Cparso,every person...EVERY person ...needs to learn to live within his means .Maybe they could teach a high school class to go along with civics in personal fiscal responsibility. Second ,how much exactly,is enough for the government to take in taxation.I mean in 1913 it was a max of 2%.That has obviously grown. I don't want to hear "well ,let's tax the rich at 90% and the rest of us at some much lower rate. Is 40% of every persons money enough? 50%?maybe 75 %?.lets just send 3/4 of every dollar to the government and that ought to hold them for a liitle while.How did our goverment manage to survive over its first 137 years with no personal income tax?Just give me a percentage and think about 50 years from now ...will it ever...ever ...be enough?
