Income Inequality

[brewster]

Sorry, unions are part of the problem; any clannish, extortionary behavior is.

Unions were great at creating job safety and a middle class quality of life for ordinary workers. Then they got full of themselves and out of control. Any time a union talks about protecting jobs not people beware, they've become a parasite rather than symbiote. And Public Employee Unions are basically organized crime. There can be no good faith bargaining when they're threatening to oust your city or state administration if they don't get what they want. So leaders give future goodies to kick the can down the road till it becomes a time bomb like we have now in a number of states. In my city they let cops rack up unused days off for decades till they get $500k when they retire and bankrupt the city.

[Martin Hash]

High Progressive taxation makes it unprofitable to squeeze every dime out of employees. We didn't start seeing EXTRAORDINARY executive pay until they got to keep most of it.

[Fife]

Baloney.

Whatever you subsidize, Unca Sugar, you get more of.

[Martin Hash]

You mean like the income of The 1%?

[Speaker to Animals]

Executives make extraordinary amounts of money via preferred stock options. Progressive taxation does jackshit to limit it. You'd have to progressively tax capital gains, but even that could be skirted.

[Fife]

You mean like the income of The 1%?

The more you tax them, the richer they will get. Crazy, huh?

[Martin Hash]

I actually find it amusing to debate tax experts.

[Speaker to Animals]

I am not opposed to progressive taxation, but unless you progressively tax capital gains, your progressive income tax will hit the upper middle class and, at best, maybe the bottom tier of rich folks.

[Martin Hash]

I am not opposed to progressive taxation, but unless you progressively tax capital gains, your progressive income tax will hit the upper middle class and, at best, maybe the bottom tier of rich folks.

Capital Gains are the prime example of how the many have been bamboozled by the few. The fact that anyone would accept someone saying they were magic & their money was magic could only come from a religious society. Capital Gains Rates have GOT TO GO!

[Speaker to Animals]

I am not opposed to progressive taxation, but unless you progressively tax capital gains, your progressive income tax will hit the upper middle class and, at best, maybe the bottom tier of rich folks.

Capital Gains are the prime example of how the many have been bamboozled by the few. The fact that anyone would accept someone saying they were magic & their money was magic could only come from a religious society. Capital Gains Rates have GOT TO GO!

Capital gains is totally different from earned income. I agree that we should combine them into one tax, but you should argue that first and foremost. Just saying we need progressive taxation, when we already have that, doesn't mean much when progressive taxation implies only earned income in our common discourse. Start by pointing out that capital gains are taxed lower and that, to make things just, we need to put them under the same taxation framework.