How much do extremely wealthy people owe to the society that gave them the chance to prosper so much?

[Crepitus]

I dont think people should be punished because they are more successful. IE much higher tax burden. They already pay most of the taxes anyway.
They also give a lot of money and time, to charity.

Taxes are not punishment.

 

[Crepitus]

They also give a lot of money and time, to charity.

As tax shelters.

 

[progressive hunter]

I dont think people should be punished because they are more successful. IE much higher tax burden. They already pay most of the taxes anyway.
They also give a lot of money and time, to charity.

Taxes are not punishment.

they are when you pay more for succeeding,,,

 

[progressive hunter]

They also give a lot of money and time, to charity.

As tax shelters.

who cares as long as they are paying it,,

anytime the people get more and the government gets less is a good thing,,

 

[Rigby5]

I dont think people should be punished because they are more successful. IE much higher tax burden. They already pay most of the taxes anyway.
They also give a lot of money and time, to charity.

That is silly because taxes are not punishment in any way.
Taxes are the overhead of what the benefits of society costs.
Like roads, schools, defense, fire fighting, etc.
It is the wealthy who benefit from these improvements the most, so they have the greatest responsibility to pay for it.
A poor person who has no car, children, or house, isn't getting anything from these investments.

 

[SC Patriot]

Why should I pay a higher percentage than the guy who's life ambition is to put hamburgers in a bag all day ?

If you're extremely rich you should do it because you can and that dude's life sucks a lot more.

And that is where you are missing the point.
If a guy/woman is extremely rich it is likely (not always) but likely that person risked cash on hand, worked long hours...many times 7 days a week, sacrificed free time....and as a result, not only made lots of money (IF successful) and likely not only employed many, but paid payroll match tax. Many of you have no idea what that is because....well...your representatives don't want you to know it. An employer payroll tax is actually a match tax that has nothing to do with the employees check and tax the employee pays but is actually an additional tax the employer pays.
Now...sure, we have 2 possible less successful people out there. First, those that cant be successful due to a physical, pyscho;logical, or chromosomal challenge. They recieve supplemental income form the federal and state governments. Where does that money come from? Tax money.
Then, you have the lazy. No ambition, no drive, no desire to work any harder than is least acceptable. That is their choice and they should deal with the consequences.

So exactly where should the one who takes all the risks, works his butt off and pyas personal income tax as well as employee tax match not doing his part?

 

[Crepitus]

They also give a lot of money and time, to charity.

As tax shelters.

who cares as long as they are paying it,,

anytime the people get more and the government gets less is a good thing,,

Except that isn't how it works out. There pay less, the government gets less, and the people they don't pay a living wage to get less to make up for it.

 

[Rigby5]

I dont think people should be punished because they are more successful. IE much higher tax burden. They already pay most of the taxes anyway.
They also give a lot of money and time, to charity.

Taxes are not punishment.

they are when you pay more for succeeding,,,

No, because the success of the wealthy comes from those improvements that taxes make possible.
The wealthy would not remain wealthy long if not for police protecting their wealth, for example.

 

[Cecilie1200]

See, that right there is a big part of why people refer to taxes as though they're theft: the idea that because you personally disapprove of how someone else uses the money they have earned justifies you taking it from them to "better use" it for what you want.

Your thread title pretended to start from the premise of "what do they owe for what they get", but it's pretty obvious early on that you're really starting from the premise of "What do we want that we can rationalize taking".

If a bunch of poor people can get educated and go to the doctor more easily by taxing a billionaire more I'm really not going to feel bad about it.

Ah, the airy dismissal of someone who wants to be seen as discussing things seriously, but really just wants to promote his own agenda with his fingers in his ears.

Once again, I point out that the main reason people look at taxes as theft is because of people like you who want to play Robin Hood for no benefit other than inflating your own egos. So congratulations on being the problem you allegedly want to solve.

 

[progressive hunter]

They also give a lot of money and time, to charity.

As tax shelters.

who cares as long as they are paying it,,

anytime the people get more and the government gets less is a good thing,,

Except that isn't how it works out. There pay less, the government gets less, and the people they don't pay a living wage to get less to make up for it.

as long as the government gets less there is more for the company to pay employees,,

 

[Turtlesoup]

Surely something, right? I see a lot of people talk like taxes are theft. Is it not just our obligation?

No. NO one owes you anything fool.

People work for their money and supposedly pay a small portion, not to give you money, but to provide for basic services like roadways, law enforcement, and miliary protection. This tax everyone to death is just theft-----meant to steal money from workers to enrich the corrupt that buy off corrupt pols and support the deadbeats (aka useful idiots.)

 

[progressive hunter]

I dont think people should be punished because they are more successful. IE much higher tax burden. They already pay most of the taxes anyway.
They also give a lot of money and time, to charity.

Taxes are not punishment.

they are when you pay more for succeeding,,,

No, because the success of the wealthy comes from those improvements that taxes make possible.
The wealthy would not remain wealthy long if not for police protecting their wealth, for example.

not fed taxs,, those are being wasted on foreign countries and never gets back to the people that paid it,,

 

[Blues Man]

Why should I pay a higher percentage than the guy who's life ambition is to put hamburgers in a bag all day ?

If you're extremely rich you should do it because you can and that dude's life sucks a lot more.

It is not a rich person's obligation to pay more because other people make bad decisions

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

But most of what the government does is done badly and ineffectively. Take your example of public schools. I certainly agree that a nation is better off having an educated populace. But public schools are a lot more than simply "not perfect"; they, like all bloated government bureaucracies, are serving every goal and interest EXCEPT the education of the students. The United States spends on average $12,800 per student for education. Our annual education spending is higher than the GDP of many countries. Do we have the best-educated students in the world? Does anyone really think having the best-educated students in the world is the primary goal of public school systems?

How do we make public schools better? I rarely hear anything but vague or ridiculous answers to that question.

Drop sports, music and gym and encourage the kids who are interested to find a weekend program for such.
The school day should be longer than 3-4 hours...3-4 hours is a joke!
How can a kid learn discipline or be prepared for the real world when they have so much time to be independent?

Where do you get 3-4 hours?

 

[Rigby5]

Exactly how did they allow the super rich to prosper?

By creating the environment that allowed them to grow so well. Do you think Bill Gates would be where he is today if he had been born in some isolated African tribe where he didn't have the opportunity to learn how to read?

That isn’t an answer. Exactly how did they create that environment?

Gates benefited because of DARPA investments that created microprocessors, the internet, etc.
Gates could not have made a cent if not for investments, research, and improvements payed for by taxes.

 

[justinacolmena]

How much do extremely wealthy people owe to the society that gave them the chance to prosper so much?
Surely something, right? I see a lot of people talk like taxes are theft. Is it not just our obligation?

You can't get that weathy without hiring a lot of other people and giving them good jobs and other stuff they need.

Certain big corporations owned by extremely wealthy people may not always pay very much, but a lot of people have jobs who wouldn't otherwise, and the vast majority of the wealth exists to support the company, what the employees do for the customers, not for lavish personal spending by the nominal owners.

Extremely wealthy people literally have more money than they know what to do with or can manage on their own, and they have to support a lot of other people with it in the course of their business.

What do they owe to society? Don't hold our individual lives cheap. Don't pull dirty life-ruining tricks in a court of law.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Why should I pay a higher percentage than the guy who's life ambition is to put hamburgers in a bag all day ?

If you're extremely rich you should do it because you can and that dude's life sucks a lot more.

That is straight from the Communist Manifesto! You knew that, right?

 

[Rigby5]

Why should I pay a higher percentage than the guy who's life ambition is to put hamburgers in a bag all day ?

If you're extremely rich you should do it because you can and that dude's life sucks a lot more.

It is not a rich person's obligation to pay more because other people make bad decisions

That makes no sense because none of the tax money collected goes to anyone else directly.
The closest any social program comes to being welfare is ADC, (Aid to Dependent Children).
And only single mothers can get that, and they still have to enroll in job training programs so they can get off ADC within a couple of years.
Over half the tax money goes to the military.

 

[Thinker101]

As we have seen time and time again, more money doesn't to schools doesn't work. Hold them accountable.

There are teachers using their own money to supply their students.

This is true, there are a lot of hands skimming off the top before funds are distributed to techers.

Data Release Shows Just 54% of K-12 Funding is Spent on Instruction | MacIver Institute

 

[BluesLegend]

How much do extremely wealthy people owe to the society that gave them the chance to prosper so much?

Nothing, earn your own wealth you mooching deadbeat losers. I already pay multiple times my equal share of the Federal spending.