Quote: (09-21-2012 05:27 AM)P Dog Wrote:
Quote: (09-21-2012 04:49 AM)Fisto Wrote:
Quote: (09-21-2012 04:47 AM)P Dog Wrote:
That didn't make sense to me, so I googled it. The highest tax bracket for American's is only 35% for every dollar $388k. Compare that to where I live the 2nd highest bracket is 37% for every dollar over only $80k. U.K, Canada, Australia etc all have higher rates on even lower brackets compared to you. In total your tax revenue is only 26% of your GDP, the lowest of any developed state tied with South Korea. Of course, nobody wants to hear that (relatively) they're not paying a lot in tax.
Other then that though I really like some of your ideas.
You aren't factoring in state taxes.
I know, hence why I included the tax revenue as percent of GDP figures. Even with your state taxes, property taxes and what not you're paying a lot less.
Quote: (09-21-2012 04:49 AM)Fisto Wrote:
And what I'm hearing is "well other developed countries steal more of their peoples' money so you shouldn't complain about your money being stolen"
I'm not saying don't complain, I'm saying it's absurd to call them "very high". Very high compared to who? Somalia?
Really though, it comes down the quality of the public services you are paying for. Hence why lowering taxes isn't nearly as big a political issue here as it is for you guys, we may pay more but we get a lot more back because of it, hence why we don't (or rarely) get the "my tax dollars are being stolen" mindset over here.
Marginal tax rates on income from employment are high. End of story.
Effective tax-rates are not that high. You can look up the Wikipedia article. Effective taxation tops at about 25 percent for the upper middle-class then drops to about 20 percent for the nation's wealthiest.
That's, in essence, a regressive tax-system. In addition, it's estimated the US spends 500bn USD a year on regulatory work.
That's like choosing to take a 10 minute longer drive to the grocery store every time you go because you think that road needs more traffic. It's tremendously inefficient.
Eliminating deductions and information over-load and simplifying the tax-code will reduce regulatory burden, increase certainty and transperancy (which benefits everyone in particular the poorest). It will mean higher effective tax rates for some groups, but overall the simplification will create enough certainty in the future that people will begin to realize economic decisions they've been putting off for a while.
In particular eliminating interest-rate deductions will be good for the US because it will improve the over-all balance sheets as people save more, reducing the our gearing and improve long-term budget sustainability.
A big part of the crisis is uncertainty about the future, and a great deal of uncertainty comes from the inability of government to offer a comprehensive solution that addresses long-term challenges. Right now people don't know what to expect, and therefore economic decisions and activity are being postponed. In addition, people hardly understand the laws that govern them right now, that adds to uncertainty.
It's like asking a high-school kid to do complicated calculus (without teaching him how) then telling him "by the way, your entire future depends on whether you get the right answer or not". You think he's going to make a decision or postpone?
The solution is to get rid of the damn calculus question so he can get back to doing what he does best, ie. opening a small business, hiring an extra worker, investing his cash savings, and so on.
Both sides are guilty of worsening this problem, and I doubt Romney will change this even though he as a private equity man is more familiar than anyone with how this kind of stuff can sabotage business decisions. There's simply too many special-interest groups in Washington and Congress has too much legislative power.
What I do know is that Obama has made these problems significantly worse, and that's why I'm voting for the other guy. Monstrous bureaucracy and inefficiency, runaway spending and abasive foreign policy is the best he has to offer.
In a world of two evils, Romney is the lesser in the eyes of this RooshV member.