Taxes!

[Osteomata]

I'm always a little suspicous of someone who tells me to "do some research" while providing no references, links, or numbers that weren't pulled out of their butt, heh. So:

http://www.photius.com/rankings/tax_...anks_2009.html
Demonstarting USA is ranked 48 out of 65 assessed countries in overall tax burden (not limited to just income tax!) Nearly all other OECD, especially the first worlders, have a greater tax burden, and few of them are attempting to, how can I put this neutrally, do what we do with our military.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/20...veloped-world/
Tax revnue as a percentage of GDP

http://www.forbes.com/global/2006/0522/032a.html
Another tax burden assessment, but this one using 2004 data, which is not too far off since Bush II tax cuts came into effect in 2001 and 2003.

So yeah, I think our revenue stream compared to the rest of the developed world is lighter. So how about that tax burden compared to other decades? I have mostly 2010 data, so we shall see how 2011 and the sloooooww recovery impacts them, but for now the numbers are pretty convincing regarding our low tax burden:

US tax burden lowest in 60 years as a percentage of GDP, coming from Bruce Bartlett, Reagan and Bush I economist:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/20...s-high-or-low/

Again, US tax burden lowest point in 60 years, including National, State, and Local taxes:
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/201...4091273594893/

Tax burden as share of national income lowest since 1966:
http://innovationandgrowth.wordpress...t-40-year-low/
That link has the added advantage of showing a table further down that illustrates how much higher the true tax burden would need to be to pay for the deficit. Looks like around 12% to me.

Another lowest in decades:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/...10-taxes_N.htm


So yeah, circ, I took your advice, and did some research.

You pick 2 taxes and rates that help your otherwise false propaganda. The overall tax burden on the American citizen is higher than at any time in the past except during WWII. It is the highest it's ever been in relation to GNP and as S&P stated it is unsustainable for even the next 10 years let alone continuing onward. BO state tax the rich. At what rate? If you took 100% of the richest 10% in the country it wouldn't pay the debt we owe China. It's illconceived. There used to be a time we helped our fellowman without the Liberals telling us how much we should help them. Now we have 70 government organizations redistributing $700,000,000,000.00 every year and the problem gets worse and the solution is more organizations and more wealth distribution. Quit listening to the politicians who get reelected by continueing to feed this monster and do some research.

[circmand]

I'm always a little suspicous of someone who tells me to "do some research" while providing no references, links, or numbers that weren't pulled out of their butt, heh. So:

http://www.photius.com/rankings/tax_...anks_2009.html
Demonstarting USA is ranked 48 out of 65 assessed countries in overall tax burden (not limited to just income tax!) Nearly all other OECD, especially the first worlders, have a greater tax burden, and few of them are attempting to, how can I put this neutrally, do what we do with our military.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/20...veloped-world/
Tax revnue as a percentage of GDP

http://www.forbes.com/global/2006/0522/032a.html
Another tax burden assessment, but this one using 2004 data, which is not too far off since Bush II tax cuts came into effect in 2001 and 2003.

So yeah, I think our revenue stream compared to the rest of the developed world is lighter. So how about that tax burden compared to other decades? I have mostly 2010 data, so we shall see how 2011 and the sloooooww recovery impacts them, but for now the numbers are pretty convincing regarding our low tax burden:

US tax burden lowest in 60 years as a percentage of GDP, coming from Bruce Bartlett, Reagan and Bush I economist:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/20...s-high-or-low/

Again, US tax burden lowest point in 60 years, including National, State, and Local taxes:
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/201...4091273594893/

Tax burden as share of national income lowest since 1966:
http://innovationandgrowth.wordpress...t-40-year-low/
That link has the added advantage of showing a table further down that illustrates how much higher the true tax burden would need to be to pay for the deficit. Looks like around 12% to me.

Another lowest in decades:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/...10-taxes_N.htm


So yeah, circ, I took your advice, and did some research.

I did error I should have written Government spending not taxes. Because we all know that overspending is just taxes that need to be collected to pay the debt.

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/...ury_chart.html

[Marlin]

I think this boils down to some simple concepts. We have more government programs and government oversight than ever before. Our solution to fix the problems is to add more government programs and more oversight. We have more taxes than anywhere in the world. As the original post insinuates, we have a tax on everything. If there isn't a bonafide tax, there is a fee instead.
Get rid of all the stupid programs. Let people make their own bed. Life was never designed to be fair. If you don't like where you are, do something about it. If we are saying that its the children of the poor that are the issue, thats an easy fix, stop giving the poor incentive to have kids. Instead offer them money to not have kids, it would save a fortune.

When I used to play paintball, I know for a fact that I tried much harder when I played in t-shirt and shorts than when I played with pads and pants. It hurt like a SOB to get hit with just a tshirt on. I paid a lot more attention to my hiding spots and thought out what I was going to do next. When I was in pads, it was "he who lays down the most paint wins" balls to the wall firefight. No strategy, no worries. There were no repercussions when I wore pads, if I got hit, I just had to sit out for a few mintues until the next round began. At this point with all the social "safety nets", we have removed any repercussions of failure to plan. Do we need food stamps and welfare, sure, but it should be for 12 weeks or some finite period of time. In order to receiv benefits, you have a mando drug test, while you are receiving benefits, you go to work. Roadside cleanup in the AM, job search in the PM. Mow public lawns and the like. There is always something you can do. After your 12 weeks, you hit the road.
My father owns a factory in Ohio. He actually has a few employees that he pays minimum wage to not come to work. In a factory, when one guy is 20 minutes late, its like all 40 of them are late 20 minutes. Ohio is a right to work state, meaning he can't fire them for being late. They have all kinds of rules before you can fire an employee. They can be late up to 20 minutes with no excuse and no repercussions. If he fires them, he has to pay their unemployment insurance, which costs more than minimum wage. He is screwed.
Those minumum wage deadbeats that he is paying are probably collecting foodstamps as well. I have to wonder how many scams like that are played out across the country?