And what system did America use to become as strong as it is today? It' worked for us for so long why jack it all up now?
We in the West desperately need to upgrade our business/political systems BEFORE more damage is done and "kung hai fat choi" to you too
And THAT'S the rub. As a people* we won't see the need (after all, half of us are still excited about the "free candy" we were promised) until we're thoroughly F^d OVER and feel the misery.... only way to fix things then will be Revolution. * The >50% of us who pay ZERO or very low income tax. Speaking of that... I saw Rudy Giuliani in TV interview this week. He said, "... out of NY City's 8,000,000+ inhabitants, 50% of the tax is paid by 42,500..." How about THAT for "progressive" taxing?
I would say NYC is a bad example. The middle class in NYC is miniscule. Furthermore, what would many of the 42,500 be doing if it weren't for the Wall Street bailouts? Second, over the past thirty years, wealth has accumulated in fewer hands, so it stands to reason that those with the most wealth pay the most in income taxes. Finally, don't discount the bottom 50%. They do pay payroll taxes, many pay real estate taxes, they pay taxes indirectly and directly on things they consume - food, clothes, fuel, goods... I would guess that as a percentage of their small incomes, they pay the highest in taxes. And what little they have don't go to yachts on the Riviera, but for survival - increasingly so. In my view the issue is not that the wealthy pay a lot of taxes, but how did so much of our society's wealth end up in so few hands? When and how did Wall Street become so financially powerful? It wasn't that way 40-50 years ago. When and how did CEOs go from earning 40 times the average salary to 400 times? Where does all this money come from? Who really pays, and who really keeps it? Other factors are at play here, and it leads to the OP's contention that we have Socialism for the few. Follow the money. Who benefitted the most from the government's reaction to the credit crisis?
I was talking about income taxes... the point of which is that fiscal, political, and social policies will be driven to please the "no income tax group"... and the way you please them is to give them more benefits at the expense of someone else. All true, what you said... But the primary reason there aren't more moderately wealthy Americans is because most never bothered to "live below their means" and save much, invest. Capital begets capital. Interest on interest. Capital gains and dividends... all that sort of thing.
All it would take to completely destroy the city would be for those 42,500 people to not pay their taxes for a few years... then you would have the two class system with the rich living in gate guarded communities same as South America... this Socialist /progressive garbage is so WEAK it's pathetic.
Are you for real? If you have french passports they can't withhold you benefits you know. In fact it is usually the foreign minorities that abuse the benefits system in Europe.
thats the #1 reason why France is now almost a third world country. if it was as bad as someone here was trying to portray it, then why would you ever go there... ?? why would you leave your own country?? Im not a fan of France, will be the first one to admit it, but truly feel sorry for them right now. Years and years of history and culture being eaten away by immigrants who somehow feel like they own the country or are entitled to everything without contributing anything