Its happening now.....

[Zullock Holmes]

sure... tax the wealthy..... but you better:

Not tax the niggers cause they don't make shit.....

but create a tax for being a "burden of Societal decay" which would deprive them of welfare and the ohhh so elusiveness of the spinning rim and "grill"



on a serious note, if you worked hard to make a lot of money, you deserve it, that's capitalism. Everyone should be taxed the same. Equality right??? its the basis of Amurica!!!

[Vehicleless]

I think that the entire taxing code needs to be redone.

back on this topic though, this government is doing these things to try and catch terrorists. Do i think the patriot act was to go after drug dealers? no, but it helped go after them.

just like in the 70s the US gove and the Swiss gov made a deal where teh swiss gov would have the banks release info about accounts if they could be tied to organized crime, how was this law first used, by the people who drafted it? no instead it was used by people to catch a porn king. someone saw the law and found a way to use it.

Thats why the laws are so difficult to read, to try and erase loopholes.

now we can look back and be like oh i hate the patriot act and ooohh I hate the other laws that came 9/11 but they have helped this country greatly. they saved us from the people trying to blow up NYC subway tunnels, they have helped to bring down terrorist networks in the US and outside of it. you bitch about spending but you want us to have a big military, you bitch about freedom of speac but when someone tells you something you don't like you think they should be shot, you bitch about safety but the gov tries to enact laws and you whine about that.


CONGRATS TO WILL AND HMC!!!!!

[iant333]

You keep claiming these people don't deserve their money and it should be taken away from them. WHY? How does taxing everyone solve the problem, it only gives money to the government to spend on ridiculous programs. You still haven't given everyone a reason as to why you think wealthy people didn't work hard for their money. I guess your concept of "work" is different from most people.

Well that was the entire idea, if the government needs money you think we should take it from the middle class and poor? Those who are struggling economically, I mean they don't have much money so they must just be some lazy idiot. Leave the rich to continue collecting their billions from the rest of America in peace. Actually as I said before the wealthy have it easier than they have in the past 60 years, in the 50's tax rates were graduated to an almost 90% tax bracket. While I'll admit that is excessive higher taxes for the wealthy are simply a price to pay for living here profiting off the rest of the country. And Doug provided an amazing example of what many of these people are being paid for, running companies into the ground and increasing their own wages and bonuses, yes as you said you will find exceptions to this, but greed is just as common.

I and many other people, some who have received necessary assistance from these programs would hardly call them "ridiculous". What other option do YOU propose for solving the budget issues, perhaps just eliminating the programs in their entirety? Americans are getting used to that recently, I mean many people's pension funds evaporate the minute they went to collect it thanks to these very same wealthy investors you don't think we should tax so harshly. Social security and Medicare/Medicaid and all of our other social programs disappearing into thin air should just be expected.

Or even better we privatize it, we saw how well that worked when regular companies invested their pension funds, all the people in charge of them basically gave them away to their other criminal friends on wall street. Lets have regular people invest their social security in the stock market.

First off, the 1980s were an incredible success for the American economy. The only downside was the increase in the national debt. But other than that, the 80s saw increases in employment, GDP, and the poverty level stayed consistent. This sense of optimism continued into the 1990s. Bush's main problem was the fact that he spent too much money. He was also huge into economic regulation, which is right up your alley.

Job Growth Per Year Under Most Recent Presidents

Johnson 3.8%
Carter 3.1
Clinton 2.4
Kennedy 2.3
Nixon 2.3
Reagan 2.1
Bush 0.6


But i'm sure you'll attribute any job growth under Clinton to Reagan's policies much in the same way that people attributed the economic collapse under Bush to Clinton.

A bit out of hand? They killed industry in America, and in effect, shot themselves in the foot.

Well for one on average manufacturing jobs only pay about 10% higher than service jobs, but really the only way to compete on a international scale like with countries in Asia as far as attracting manufacturing jobs, would to drop our wages down to rock bottom. Making them in effect pay much less, so much so that Americans would not want to take them.

The reason the Chinese are killing us is that no American is willing to work for 3 dollars a day.

[Nick]

Well that was the entire idea, if the government needs money you think we should take it from the middle class and poor? Leave the rich to continue collecting their billions from the rest of America in peace. A While I'll admit that is excessive higher taxes for the wealthy are simply a price to pay for living here profiting off the rest of the country.

Why not just have a flat tax where everyone pays equally, say 20-25%? If everyone uses basic government services equally, i.e. roads/emergency services/defense, then this solution is completely justified. This means that everyone has an equal share in the responsibility to fund this country. And its still mind-boggling that you make everyone who is rich out to be some sort of greedy monster.

I and many other people, some who have received necessary assistance from these programs would hardly call them "ridiculous". What other option do YOU propose for solving the budget issues, perhaps just eliminating the programs in their entirety? Americans are getting used to that recently, I mean many people's pension funds evaporate the minute they went to collect it thanks to these very same wealthy investors you don't think we should tax so harshly. Social security and Medicare/Medicaid and all of our other social programs disappearing into thin air should just be expected.

First off, pension funds are a ridiculous concept. Why should someone continue to receive their almost their full salary plus benefits after they retired? How can you expect a company to be successful while funding something like that. This concept worked during the time you refer to because people didn't live nearly as long as they do today. Companies could afford to keep a guy on the books for 5 years until he kicked the bucket. Now these companies, due to early retirement and whatnot, have people living off pensions for 20+ years. I'm all for programs like company matched 401ks and other similar programs. The company pays you your wage, its up to you to manage that money. Social Security is a horrendous horrendous program. It is so mismanaged and costly, and should really start to be phased out. Medicare is fine, I have no problems with that. Unemployment benefits shouldn't have been extended to 99 weeks, that's a silly time frame. Defense spending should be cut back to a reasonable level.


Lets be realistic about those job rates, don't make a big deal about .2 of a %. New jobs increased at the same rate as the population.

Well for one on average manufacturing jobs only pay about 10% higher than service jobs, but really the only way to compete on a international scale like with countries in Asia as far as attracting manufacturing jobs, would to drop our wages down to rock bottom. Making them in effect pay much less, so much so that Americans would not want to take them.

The major manufacturing companies in the United States were very generous with their wages up to a point. But people thought they were entitled to large salaries even though they really didn't do anything that important. So the companies left. Don't act like the companies were so willing to leave because of cheap labor, relocating is incredibly expensive. And, how is China "killing us"? Their country is a mess, they are actually cutting back their growth because its so unsustainable. China is nowhere near the level of the US, despite what all the fearmongers want you to believe.

I still don't see you providing any other solutions to the problem other than just taking all the money away from rich people. So turn down the dial from 11 to a more intelligent number on your "hate the rich, bush/reagan's fault" dial, and use some common sense and apply it to the real world.

[Vehicleless]

I don't think he is suggesting that we take all the money from the rich. then there would be no rich, but then we would be able to fund our military.

China has had growth so strong because they have forced a high GDP by building. If you look up Empty city's of china you will see. Chinas labor is very cheep, that is why things are built their. people are depressed with their work conditions. FOXCON, who manufactures tons of electronics including all Iphones has a big suicide rate and were using banned chemicals for years because "it got the glass cleaner" these chemicals are poisonous if inhaled, and guess what, they were fucking inhaled.

an advantage of the Chinese system is that they can oppress their citizens into doing what they want. the closest that China came to breaking free of Communism was Tienanmen square, which everybody should read more about, and not just wikipedia. Read entire books about it.

in no way do I think we should bring the Chinese system here.