Interesting artical about what government can and can't do. It's a bit longish, but worth the read. (3 Viewers)

[Steve R.]

I was merely correcting you on your statement. the poor do pay taxes, and since they have to spend every dime at the store or on rent, a substantial portion of their income does go to taxes.

So when a parent gives a child money to buy candy, that constitutes the kid paying taxes? You are playing word games.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I did not say Federal taxes. Is English your second language? Or, is it just a life long habit to jump to conclusions? Maybe it's just the cool aid talking.

The conversation has been about Federal taxes and how they are wasted. Now you are choosing to include state and municipal taxes. OK, the discussion can expand. The towns waste money too but it is far less blatant than at the Federal level because the tax payers can simply march into city hall to complain or go to the public town meetings which can be a hoot by the way.

 

[Isaac]

This is literally the absolute worst Republican Cool Aid I have seen in this long drawn out discussion.

I was merely correcting you on your statement. the poor do pay taxes, and since they have to spend every dime at the store or on rent, a substantial portion of their income does go to taxes.

The subsidies you speak of, they have among the highest economic multiplier effect on our economy.

@Thales750 don't you sometimes feel, though, like the block of people who are increasingly dependent on the government is getting bigger? In a way such an assertion is almost an inherent one from your overall perspective that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, or the inequality gap, or whatever it's called.

I guess our differences are how to deal with that. Some people say tax the rich more and give the poor people even more government stuff.
Other people say there is a fundamental attitude problem that leads too many people to almost prefer gov dependence instead of making the hard-but-right decisions that get them ahead.
My problem is that the bigger the block gets that depends on the government, the bigger the voting block gets that will just keep voting for policies that keep paying for an increasing poor block's survival from successful people's money......You see where this is going, ultimately it would be unsustainable as it only scales so far. And that's not to mention fairness perspective, I'm just talking about the pot of available $ to take from.

I take a lot from my own experiences, growing up poor and being 'ok' but paycheck to paycheck for a lot of my life until at least my upper 30's.
Basically it was all my own fault, and as soon as I made more right decisions over an extended period of time, I found a more comfortable level of income and I feel like the vast majority of poor people could do that. I realize some can't, if you are a quadruple amputee all you can do is sit and depend on others - but i'm talking about the vast majority who are poor simply because they go from job to job, never really put in what it takes to climb the ladder, don't put that extra effort into learning a skill, etc. A lot of people just choose that life, I know I did for a time.

 

[Thales750]

@Thales750 don't you sometimes feel, though, like the block of people who are increasingly dependent on the government is getting bigger? In a way such an assertion is almost an inherent one from your overall perspective that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, or the inequality gap, or whatever it's called.

I guess our differences are how to deal with that. Some people say tax the rich more and give the poor people even more government stuff.
Other people say there is a fundamental attitude problem that leads too many people to almost prefer gov dependence instead of making the hard-but-right decisions that get them ahead.
My problem is that the bigger the block gets that depends on the government, the bigger the voting block gets that will just keep voting for policies that keep paying for an increasing poor block's survival from successful people's money......You see where this is going, ultimately it would be unsustainable as it only scales so far. And that's not to mention fairness perspective, I'm just talking about the pot of available $ to take from.

I take a lot from my own experiences, growing up poor and being 'ok' but paycheck to paycheck for a lot of my life until at least my upper 30's.
Basically it was all my own fault, and as soon as I made more right decisions over an extended period of time, I found a more comfortable level of income and I feel like the vast majority of poor people could do that. I realize some can't, if you are a quadruple amputee all you can do is sit and depend on others - but i'm talking about the vast majority who are poor simply because they go from job to job, never really put in what it takes to climb the ladder, don't put that extra effort into learning a skill, etc. A lot of people just choose that life, I know I did for a time.

This statement could be a synopsis of a long and complicated book. It would be nice if we could (the folks here) actually move this conversation to discussing the details of these issues and perspectives.

I personally would find it fascinating, or at least interesting,