Ironically, the people who make less than $40k don't pay a dime of federal taxes anyway. Between the personal exmeption and a personal deduction, most of their income is tax free. Of course they vote Democrat.
The problem is we've been consuming more than we've been producing for 30 or 40 years now, handing out IOU's all along the way. We've been doing it so long, we can't even see that its wrong, or that there would be anything different we could do to change it. Soon the credit will get cut off, and people will be forced to realize that: they have no RIGHT to a car, insurance, or fuel. get a bike if you can't afford the gas they have no RIGHT to own a home. they can't afford meat, and they'll have to eat beans. And if they can't afford to buy the beans, they'll need to grow them. the chinese will get the meat from now on. they have all the dollars to pay for it, courtesy of wal-mart Its just the price of all that glutonous consumption of oil, cheap made in china stuff, globalization, and debt/deficits out the ying/yang coming home to roost. college education won't get you a decent job. sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. nothing will help much if you are living someplace where there are no jobs. I've been "unemployed" since about 2002 when many of my clients went bankrupt. I've been trading for a living since then, lucky, and the only thing else I can say is, to quote Colin Powell, "But for the grace of God, there go I".
Families making 40K or less shouldn't pay federal income taxes. If the wealthly were taxed their fair share people making 60-80K could pay a lot less also. If 5% of the population control 85% of the wealth then they should pay 85% of the nations bills. Unfortunately, many families earning 40K or less do NOT vote Democrat: they are evangelcal Christians and they have been hoodwinked into voting against their own best interests.
Bullshit. We should be smart enough to STOP taxing work. Look at the 15% social security and medicare taxes paid by the working poor as an example of why. Pretty soon the wealthy, like myself, will just vote with their feet and leave you taxaholics to your own devices. Taxing work just discourages it. Why can't people see that? We need to tax consumption instead. That would mean that the imported goods would be forced to carry an equal share of the tax load. Don't you notice that in the stores so many things are imported now? Those things used to be made in American factories by American workers, who got paychecks each week for making them. Now those workers are underemployed or unemployed, paying little or nothing in taxes, and the imported goods pay nothing in taxes, and that's part of why we have huge deficits and all our jobs are disappearing overseas. We need to learn to consume less. Not until we as a nation learn to live within our means will this improve. The Fairtax did all this in a non-regressive manner, but people aren't smart enough to see it.
What is 'fair' about the Fairtax? My wife and I make approx. 200K per year: we spend less than 50K. We have no house payment, no auto loans, all credit cards are paid in full every month. We have no children to educate, feed or clothe. That's 100-150K put into savings and investments. Meanwhile, a family of 4 making 100K spend every dollar just to make ends meet. Under the 'Fair' tax they would be taxed on all of their income; I get taxed on 25% of my income. That's very regressive, unfair, and unworkable. Taxing income at time of receipt (when you get your paycheck) is the best, cheapest, and fairest method of taxation. Making changes just for the sake of doing so makes no sense.
Too many people treat money like disposable garbage, not the Life Force that money is. No respect for money at all. I know too many people that if their income was suddenly doubled, their spending would suddenly double and then some. Then when hard times come, they've got nothing. I have a lot of relatives that experienced the Great Depression. They have tremendous respect for money and have done very well through numerous personal and economic downturns. My grandparents lost 2 farms during the Great Depression and did not receive a government bailout. They worked and worked to rebuild. And succeeded, eventually.
Agreed, especially since most of us don't draw earned income and thus don't pay traditional income tax. To me, that was a major bonus to deciding to trade futures and making tax favored investments. Trading (for now) enjoys low taxes, no social security taxes, no medicare and the ability to reinvest leftover profits after living expenses into passive income. I only worry what Obama will do to this lovely setup if elected. He wants to go after you and me.
The Gummint cares not about "fair".. they care only for "getting the maximum amount of money with the least political backlash". That's why the system won't change in our lifetimes.