An Obama Adminstration Will Be Quite Taxing Indeed
If you’re at all interested in the tax proposals of both candidates, the Wall Street Journal has the best brief summary here. The shorter version is that if you have any ambition toward making six figures during a Barack Obama administration, you’re going to need to be very, very careful lest you trigger a blizzard of higher taxes that will take up to 45 percent of your salary. On the other hand, if you’re already poor, don’t bother trying to be anything else. You’ll make out better if you stay that way.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Do You Own a Small Business? Look out for Obama.
- Barack Obama’s “Tax Cut” Plan is Deceitful
- America’s Most Famous Community Organizer Unwilling to Organize His Senate Community
Category: The Economy and Your Money, The Obamessiah
"On the other hand, if you’re already poor, don’t bother trying to be anything else. You’ll make out better if you stay that way."
Are you really that stupid? I don't think so, I've read your blog for years. You are just being a reasonably smart demagogue here. But here's the thing that really blows my mind about conservatives: they would rather be poorer than pay more money to the government. The way to make out better is to make more after-tax income. The way to do that is to make more income. Yes, you'll pay more taxes, but you'll keep more money, too. The idea that increasing your pre-tax income will reduce your after tax income is pure nonsense. Just look at the IRS tax tables. There is a smooth transition in tax owed throughout the tables. At no point in the tables does an increase in taxable income result in a decrease in after-tax income. For you to say otherwise is just pure demagoguery.
And the Wall Street Journal is no better. Look, anyone making more than $165K in taxable income is not getting all that income from salary (I sure don't). Anyone smart enough to make this kind of money is getting a lot of that compensation in the form of capital gains, which are taxed at a far lower rate. Consider Warren Buffet, who is admittedly not normal, being the richest person in the world. He had a taxable income of $46 million last year, only $100,000 of which was salary. The rest was capital gains. He paid an effective tax rate of only 17.7%. His receptionist, who makes $60K, paid an effective tax rate of 30%. His receptionist doesn't have access to the tax loopholes that I do. I made about $160K in taxable income (I have a hell of a lot of deductions and exemptions), and my effective tax rate was about 23% (probably lower than yours). Once you get into the income range that Obama wants to tax, your effective tax rate goes down the more money you make. And that will still be true under Obama's plan, just less so. And I don't really mind that. If I make more money, I'll still being paying a lower effective tax rate, but higher than under McCain's plan. Big deal. I'm with Warren Buffett, I support the Obama plan even though I could possibly be negatively affected by it. And Warren is right with this quote:
"There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning."
Warren and I are indeed winning the class war now, and it is you and your class who are losing. But that's only on a relative scale. The fact is that we all lose when we destroy the middle class to create an aristocracy. It destroys the market for the goods that make us rich people rich. But if we must create an aristocracy, at least I'm in it. And you'll never get there under McCain's plan.
"On the other hand, if you’re already poor, don’t bother trying to be anything else. You’ll make out better if you stay that way."
This is really dumb. By this logic, I guess we can assume that all the wealthy people in America are just gonna give all their money and property away and get a job at 7-11 if Obama wins because that way they'll have to pay less in tax, which means they'll be better off…
I want to know, do you really believe this crap or is it just an attempt to win over a few dullards to your cause?
"I want to know, do you really believe this crap or is it just an attempt to win over a few dullards to your cause? "
You know, sometimes I think Jimmie gets better LSD than I can. But it's only a once a year thing for me. The everyday thing starts to make you delusional.
No, mammon, and it's a ridiculous prediction. It's a lot more likely that those people, who are b no means stupid, will shelter their money away like they always do when the government comes after it.
That will mean millions of dollars that won't be flowing through the economy, which is bad for all of us.
Meanwhile, the people who have aspirations toward wealth will find quite the punishment waiting for them should they ever make it there. They'll also find the way far more difficult as more of their money is taken from them on the way up.
This isn't rocket science. This is simple economics.
Nope, as fostert pointed out, people will make more money as long as, well, as long they continue to make more money. In the real world there is not, nor under Obamas plan will there be, any disincentive to earn less than, let's say, infinity. The more you earn, the more you earn – regardless of the tax bracket you're in.
I suggest you re-read the first paragraph in fosterts response to understand the simplicity of this.
You are correct on one thing, though – it is, indeed, simple economics.
"Meanwhile, the people who have aspirations toward wealth will find quite the punishment waiting for them should they ever make it there."
No, they won't. I had those aspirations when I was younger. And that was during the Clinton administration. And I had no problem succeeding. And I paid higher taxes than Obama is proposing now.
And let me tell you about the shock you will receive when you get to wealth. You'll be like: "Holy S***, I can buy what I want, when I want. And I can go where I want, when I want. This S***'s great!" Trust me, the taxes won't worry you. There is no punishment. And the idea that you or anyone would give up the good life just because you'd pay more taxes is just beyond me. I really don't get that. There's really nothing to fear in those higher tax rates. If you get really rich, you're not paying them, anyway.
"You are correct on one thing, though – it is, indeed, simple economics. "
Jimmie's still in Adam Smith Land. Apparently, the last two hundred years of economic development haven't had any effect on economic theory. At least not his.
"Meanwhile, the people who have aspirations toward wealth will find quite the punishment waiting for them should they ever make it there."
This doesn't follow from what you said in the beginning of your reply, which was that the wealthy have the privilege of "shelter[ing] their money away" from the tax man.
If the poor move ever "make it there" they, too, will also benefit from the tax shelter that their newly acquired wealth provides, just like the non-stupid folk who are already there.
You know. What really pisses me off is McCain's ineptitude in refuting BHO's claim during the debates. You are going to tell me that he wouldn't have scored points had he mentioned the tidbit about the government cutting checks for losers who don't pay taxes? McCain will lose the election for being stupid. I would have torn Obama apart in those debates or anybody with half a brain. I'll vote for the old fart but only because I don't vote for socialists.
By far the stupidest comment I've read in a while fostert. You are a true moron. The point is that I don't want the gov't to make me pay for somebody's free ride, get it? If you want to pay more taxes and don't mind higher tax rates, then by all means knock yourself out and write a check to the IRS. Economies flourish when gov't stays out of people's pockets. This helps the poor more than some handout. Go vote for Obama if you will but keep your writing to yourself.