Ahhh ... you've hit on the 'dirty little secret' that seems to hold true for the very rich in every country, including the USA. They TALK a good game for public consumption i.e. let's increase income taxes on the rich back up to 36% or whatever. But in point of fact, they create/maintain tax rules on capital gains, tax preferred investments, trusts, foreign investments, residency etc. that allow the 'rich' to easily avoid actually paying taxes in amounts that are anywhere near the publicly stated tax rates.Fuck the rich Let them pay.
No political intent (really), but election law required that GWB and John Kerry publicly disclose their tax returns as part of the 2004 election. At that time, John Kerry and family actually paid 12% of their 5 mil of total earnings out in taxes. Yes this amounted to $600,000 or something, but it was still 12%.
Compare that to your typical dancer earning say $60,000 a year who must pay out 15% in self-employment tax plus another 15% in federal income tax plus a few more percent in state and local income tax for a total of say $20,000. So yes that dancer paid far less dollars in taxes than John Kerry did, but in terms of tax burden that $20,000 amounted to 33% of her total earnings. More significantly, being left with $40,000 after taxes instead of $60,000 had a far more negative effect on the dancer's standard of living than John Kerry being left with $4.4 million after taxes versus $5 million. Of course mainstream media never seems to look at the issue of income taxes from this angle.
In reality, calls for 'tax the rich' ultimately mutates into 'tax the middle class', while the rich find new methods of legal tax avoidance.
In the same reality, an increase in minimum wage which results in price increases for low priced restaurant meals, non-premium quality consumer goods, basic food staples, and everything else that has a high percentage of minimum wage labor content will have a far more negative effect on dancers earning $40,000 a year after taxes who typically buys those things. The 'rich' on the other hand won't see any impact whatsoever on the price of five star restaurant meals, top of the line luxury consumer goods, gourmet foods and everything else that has a low percentage or zero minimum wage labor content !
I guess the financial hypocracy of all this is what really pi$$es me off. Hearing Teddy Kennedy or for that matter every other multi-millionaire gov't figure in Washington DC of BOTH political parties rant about the minimum wage bill being stalled over offsetting tax breaks to small business owners is simply bulls#@t. These people understand exactly who winds up paying for the true costs of a minimum wage increase, and it sure as hell isn't themselves or other members of the multi-millionaire 'rich' !
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