Taxes, time to pay your fair share

[Guest]

StangerBanger96;191787 wrote:
You get what I was saying though...Since you had to bring that up though your dream of "well vote them out of office then if you don't like their policies" doesn't work. Too many voters don't give a shit or know a damn thing and just blindly vote, ESPECIALLY when it comes to Congressional elections. Once you're voted into office (especially Senators) you have to screw up REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY bad to get voted out.

The Government's job isn't to redistribute wealth, make people prosperous, nor to make a profit. Taxes are insane because Congress is making taxpayers fund so much pork on every bill being passed and continues funding idiotic programs that we are paying out the nose for shit nobody cares about. We're FUBAR'd because all of Congress is part of the Old Boys club, democrats and rebpulicans are sucking each other off and wiping each others asses with $100 bills while the citizens of the country fund it.

One of my favorite government funded studies was several hundred thousand dollars, or was it millions, were given to study whether or not dogs dream. WHAT THE FUCK? They waste our tax money to see whether or not dogs dream??!?! Give me a break...

I agree with you Dustin as well. I know it is VERY difficult to remove someone from office via elections. Term limits, line item vetoes, etc... would be a good step in the right direction to cut the pork from politics and to break the good ol' boy club up a bit. BUT it needs to happen nationwide. While I'm on this subject, I may as well throw out the idea of splitting the electoral vote in states...say if one candidate gets 66% of the vote and another gets 33% and the state has 3 electoral votes....why can't 2 of them vote for the 66% candidate and 1 for the 33% candidate? Or better yet, do away with the electoral college entirely.

[StangerBanger96]

There seems to be increasingly serious talks about states splitting up their Electoral Votes. I know some states are already doing that IIRC. I say we get rid of the Electoral College completely as well...

[thrash]

Dave, I don't disagree that the contribution of a wealthy man to society is vastly greater than that of an average man. That doesn't change the fact that the wealthy man benefits more from society than the average man does.

Tremendous wealth is not possible without society. Society is possible without tremendous wealth. Society is a pre-requisite for tremendous wealth.

It's a bit paradoxical -- without all of those other people, no individual can become wealthy. But because of the differentiated structure of society (that affords some great wealth.. and releives many of the backbreaking toil of finding their days meal each and every day), the poorest man in American society has a higher standard of living than the worlds richest man of only 100 years ago (nobody 100 years ago had AC, television, cars. today, nearly everyone in the US has these things, and they live longer and healthier lives to boot)

So it is of course true that there is a symbiotic relationship between all levels of wealth in a society. But that does't change the fact that, without the society underpinning them, the wealthy cannot ever become wealthy in the first place.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

• Anatole France, 1894

[thrash]

Getting rid of the electoral college means that the east and west coast will completely dominate national politics indefinitely and to the complete exclusion of any "red" state.

Some people think that's a good thing. The founders of the nation designed the EC precisely to avoid such stupidity.

[Guest]

thrash;191793 wrote:
Getting rid of the electoral college means that the east and west coast will completely dominate national politics indefinitely and to the complete exclusion of any "red" state.

Some people think that's a good thing. The founders of the nation designed the EC precisely to avoid such stupidity.

The way the electoral college is now it is set up to grant larger numbers of votes for more populated states (read East/West coast) since it is based on the number of members of the Senate & House. In my opinion, more Democrats would vote in ND and more Republicans in MN if there were no electoral college (using those two states as an example) since their votes would actually count.

[GarageAlchemist]

with so much money being paid out in taxes, you'd think we'd get free healthcare out of the deal

[Guest]

GarageAlchemist;191800 wrote:
with so much money being paid out in taxes, you'd think we'd get free healthcare out of the deal

And this thread just spun wildly out of control.....

[thrash]

tjamz;191799 wrote:
The way the electoral college is now it is set up to grant larger numbers of votes for more populated states (read East/West coast) since it is based on the number of members of the Senate & House. In my opinion, more Democrats would vote in ND and more Republicans in MN if there were no electoral college (using those two states as an example) since their votes would actually count.

The current algorithm blends total population and statehood. The ratio of EC votes to humans is higher in lower populated states like ND, since you get one selector per senator and per representative. This effectively gives residents of ND more "say" per warm body than residents of california, even though california aggregately has much more say in things.

Under today's system, the ratio of electoral power between CA and ND is 55:3. Under a purely representational system, it would be 53:1

[Guest]

Ok...can we at least agree to split the electoral college if (in ND) 2/3 vote Repub and 1/3 vote dem (needing >33% of the vote to even get one vote in ND)

[GarageAlchemist]

tjamz;191801 wrote:
And this thread just spun wildly out of control.....

why? government provided health care is a big part of many countries tax policy

[integra_gsr98]

The government should NOT provide health care to its citizens.

/thread

[StangerBanger96]

GarageAlchemist;191837 wrote:
why? government provided health care is a big part of many countries tax policy

It's not the governments responsibility to provide universal healthcare. We wouldn't be able to afford it either unless you wanted astronomically high tax rates. It would hurt the nation more than it would help it.

[DaveH]

I know "healthcare" is the latest big political football, but it doesn't really make sense. It's much more important to have food and shelter than it is to have healthcare. Without food and shelter you don't need healthcare. The government should supply everyone with food and shelter, that would make much more sense than government supplied health insurance.

:icon_albino:

[2slo50h]

StangerBanger96;191843 wrote:
It's not the governments responsibility to provide universal healthcare. We wouldn't be able to afford it either unless you wanted astronomically high tax rates. It would hurt the nation more than it would help it.

Of course universal healthcare is not in the budget, with the estimated **$60 Billion **that will be needed to pay for our returning vets injury and post dramatic stress.

:icon_thumleft:

[Guest]

GarageAlchemist;191837 wrote:
why? government provided health care is a big part of many countries pay outrageous amounts of tax

Fixed your post for you.

[StangerBanger96]

2slo50h;191854 wrote:
Of course universal healthcare is not in the budget, with the estimated **$60 Billion **that will be needed to pay for our returning vets injury and post dramatic stress.

:icon_thumleft:

Regardless of the view on the war, troop funding is more important than universal healthcare. That will never happen and never should.

[Guest]

If you want healthcare to stop being so expensive you need a couple things to happen:

1. Stop allowing prescription drugs to be advertised on TV. PERIOD. 90% of the time I watch those commercials and think "hmmm....on any given day I could have some of those symptoms"....and i'm not alone, more people DEMAND prescription drugs than ever before and Dr.'s are afraid to not prescribe them for fear of lawsuits....which brings me to #2

2. Frivolous law suits. They need to end. Period. Dr's charge so much because they have to carry crazy amounts of insurance. If a Dr forgets his watch inside you, absolutely you should sue him...if your incision doesn't heal w/o a scar, you have no case. Sorry.

I could go on, but I'm tired....Dave/thrash should have more input on this topic as well.

[DrifterExtreme]

just to make this clear i'm going back to the taxes being an equal percentage no matter the income.

now i don't care if your unable to pay your bills or are on wellfare.. or w/e

it is not my duty( talking mostly about my parents) to help your ass pay bills. who thought it would be a good idea to help out poor ppl. i think if you were smart enough to succeed in life why should you pay more in taxes then someone who makes minimum wage.

considering the amount my parents pay in every year would really piss me off if i was in there shoe's. i mean we have all these system's setup for poor yet the middle class gets the short end of the deal. i don't get it, and don't tell me it is because we can "afford" to pay in more. that is a shitty excuse to take from the rich and give to the poor.

so i'm all for taxes being equal...

[torbs]

Hilary (or most Democraps it seems like) is kinda like Robin Hood...Take from the rich and give to the poor...and heath...NO WAY IN FUCK will I pay in to cover peoples asses who are too lazy to get/purchase health insurance...it shouldn't be the governments responsibility to pay in for others' laziness. We all know that it isn't hard to get a job full time right outa high school that pays $9-15/hour...with that amount of money, funding one's own health insurance shouldn't be a problem (that and several companys pay for it anyway). If somebody can't afford it because they have too many kids, then that's their own damn fault...This may sound harsh, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. It shouldn't be the government's responsibility to cover up people's own fuckups.

And Matt, nice to see that we can agree on something when it comes to $$$ (equal tax for all)

[DelSlow]

torbs;191877 wrote:
blah blah balh i watch FOX News i know about politics blah.

Fixed it for ya..