Under Bush US's 400 richest doubled their wealth

Taxing capital gains at the same rate as earned income is not going to hamper investment. Much of what the government provides us is required and must be paid for. Yes, there are things that can be cut to reduce expenditures, but you're not going to be able to cut spending in half.

If government does not provide a safety net, the wealth and power will become so limited that what remains will force changes that go against everything we wish for in a free society. We need the investment money that the wealthy provide, but we also need a strong middle class that is capable of buying goods to keep the economy going. Otherwise, the rich will become poor very quickly because there certainly aren't enough of them to support themselves.

They get it, but there needs to be forces on both sides pulling to keep us from moving too far to one side or the other.

Romney would have made a great President. It's too bad so few people get it. Romney does.

hey dip shit, I do not listen to Limbaugh and in fact i think I tuned in his show once or twice when slick Willy was president quite frankly , i find him boring, predictable and pedantic and haven't listened since. you probably listen to him more than I ever have.

and labor does exist without capital. but what the labor produces is more important than the labor itself. i take it you subscribe to Marx's value of labor theory right?

You believe the chair that takes 40 hours to make is somehow worth more than the same chair made in 10 hours by a better wood worker right. after all labor is more important than the end result.

you would rather have endless government road crews resurfacing existing highways and spray painting existing bridges all funded by tax payer money before you would have a company get a tax break for building a new research facility that will produce a commodity that actually has value.

what i do get is we will soon be seeing higher income and payroll taxes on everyone not just the "rich", higher gas and excise taxes and most likely an additional value added tax not to mention local taxes that will be piled on top of it all.

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"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."-Albert Einstein
"Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education."-Bertrand Russell
“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”― Napoleon Bonaparte
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then tax income at the same rate as capital gains. I'd like to have more money in my paycheck wouldn't you?

and just what is the government safety net you speak of. welfare, foodstamps, social security? with the exception of SS all very small budget items. and we all know that SS is nothing but a government slush fund an endlessly replenished petty cash draw. you think Madow had a Pozi scheme running, just what do you think SS is?

the government takes money from you to pay its obligations to people collecting. there is not one dime in the SS system. it's shameful really.

if I paid my employees like that, I'd be arrested but it's not illegal if the government does it right?

__________________
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."-Albert Einstein
"Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education."-Bertrand Russell
“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”― Napoleon Bonaparte
“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session”

Okay the first thing the leftist tools here need to understand is that the only time the rich don't get richer is when we are all freaking starving. Capital gains? Give me a break you sell a house it is a capital gain. Interest on a checking account beyond certqain amounts is a capital gain. Interest earned on any investment is a capital gain so is dvidends on stock holdings. When you say you want to increase the capital gains tax rate you are saying you thing we should have a smaller economy with less investment and fewerjobs because that is waht you will get. I made about 30k last year I'll mkae about 30k this year my house is paid for so It doesn't really matter.

Tell me at what point it is cheaper to pay tax attorneys $500 an hour to save you maybe 10 k on your taxes. Less than 20 hours.

all this is is right wing jargon.... j/k u

The point of the matter is that the very wealthiest paid 15% capital gains tax on 63% on average of his earnings that he made OFF OF investing in SOMEONE ELSE'S labor, with no SS or Medicare taxes on it as well, while the guy making 150k, working 55 hours a week, and using his labor to earn his fruit, is paying 35% or so on what he makes....and pays SS taxes up to the 100k and medicare taxes on his entire earnings.

There is something WRONG with this....how could you not agree?

care

Pointing out inequities in our pay system has nothing to do with having something against the rich. It has to do with why top executives get paid over 200 time what the average worker gets. If you look at how pay has increased, theirs has gone up at astrological rate while the workers moves at a snails pace. That is inequity.

Please don't tell me I hate corporations or that they supply the jobs. The people supply the labor. It's a fifty fifty situation. Add in that 85% of our businesses are small businesses that don't get the frigging golden parachutes and 23 million dollar bonuses.

Then, like the banking industry, they prove to be totally incompetent in their job.

If you have no problem paying people for breaking the company, that's your issue and your future problems.

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"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of right wing thinking we were at when we created them." Anon.
Push a liberal hard enough, and he will clean out the temple.

This is true in a lot of what I have seen Amanda post... I give her a lot of credit... she appears to be a hard working young woman... with the proper attitude of people earning their way, not supporting a Robin Hood mentality

__________________
Fuck the subjective notion of 'fair'
Embrace true equality in treatment in all aspects, not just ones that benefit you or your cause

When the rich or white collar workers take from the poor this is okay though?

Come on guys when you use and abuse someone elses labor you are in effect a thief for the rich or the upper middleclass with investments.

When you use a poor man's lower credit score to justify higher insurance rates you effectively robbed from the poor to give to the rich. Low credit scores are not necessarily from non payment of bills. If you have not borrowed money you may have a lower credit score and therefore be charged extra by the rigged system that is now in place.

When credit companies make loans to people they now do not have enough to actually make timely payments and charge that extra 45 bucks a month for a ten dollar two day late payment you have basically allowed and assisted the rich to steal from the poor.

A poor family with two parents working 40 and 50 hour weeks are considered lazy by a few of the posters because they work at jobs that produce a product via a service industry that creates paper debt using other peoples money. And people wonder why this countries economy is in the shitter.

ok--how can a family with two regular incomes be considered poor ?

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"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

" What does a pope do? "
- Fidel Castro

And the above is EXACTLY the conceit which explains why, for example, most people object to the inheritence tax.

The largely delusional belief that perhaps someday with luck and pluck you too might be invited to the banquet of the superwealthy.

One doesn't need to have anything against the superwealthy to think that they're having too large a share of the economy's overall wealth can be detremental to the society.

Just as one can understand without hating the working classes, that if the workers make too much money, that can cause inflation, one should be able to ALSO understand that if too few people have too much of the money, that can ALSO cause economic woes much like we are experiencing now...DEFLATION.

But after decades of proponents of supply sider economics propaganda hammering anyone who points out the above as a communist, I suppose I should not be surprised that most people simply don't get it.

A capitalist society needs both wealthy people, AND working people making a living to be a truly wealthy and productive society.

Too few owning too much or too many with too little, will screw up a consumer driven economy, as we can PLAINLY SEE, right now.

What I think too few people understand, I think is that all wealth comes from human LABOR.

Money, which in our society seemed to begat STILL MORE money, tends to make us think that the RICH create wealth.

They don't. They ar epart of the equasion since they ammass the capital (the respresentation of stored wealth) which is invested to put people to work to make still more wealth.

But notice the equasion?

No wealth is created until somebody does some WORK.

WORK generates wealth...money merely keeps score.

Depends doesn't it?

If you are selling you HOME there are no capital gains taxes.

If you are in the homeflippig business, then of course, you will be subject to capital gains on the profit you make after expenses.

There's nothing wrong with taxing capital gains.

It's merely taxing intellectual labor instead of physical labor.

We are to have the legal level playing field, to ensure freedoms, and ensure we are not discriminated against...

Infringing on one's freedom, even if it is Robin Hoody and feels nice to hand out to others, is not a good thing...

And if one company does try and 'stick it to' the 'poor' for whatever reason, and there is a market there with profits to be made, another will inherently take advantage of that situation and open up to take advantage of that business opportunity, to loan to lower income people who show they can pay, etc

It is up to you to not only pay your bills and be responsible for what you earn, but to sit back and realize the consequences of your choices/actions and take it upon yourself to play the game that is out there.. as long as the game is fair for all and the same for all, we and the govt are not there to sit there and dry your tears when you cry or complain about it

__________________
Fuck the subjective notion of 'fair'
Embrace true equality in treatment in all aspects, not just ones that benefit you or your cause

We're all onboard for that.

Even liberals.

But today's liberals also think that we need to pay as we go, rather than the Republican plan which was to spend and borrow, borrow and spend.