That doesn’t mean Mr. Ross pays more in taxes than he earns. His total tax as a percentage of his adjusted gross income was 20 percent, which is much lower than mine.Turns out that Mr James Cramer, a money guru and TV Host on CNBC, pays a high rate, due to living in New Jersey and working there and in New York City.
This isn't about rich and poor, but about who gets helped by the tax code—who does the best job of lobbying Congress.
Mr. Ross’s plight illustrates something that came through in nearly every response and cuts across nearly all income levels: the disparities of the tax code don’t just pit rich against poor or middle class. It taxes people within the same income brackets at grossly unequal rates. “I cannot help but reflect on the unfairness of the current tax regime,” Mr. Ross wrote. “Why should I pay 102 percent of my taxable income in taxes when others, with far greater wealth than mine, pay a fraction of that?”This is not about arrogant Republicans and humble Democrats. The Democrats have had control of Congress for most of the period since early 1933. I am sure they have been as clean as the new driven snow, but they are assuredly part of how we got here. As Kad Barma might point out, it is the system that is the problem. Oh, and the voters.
The last paragraph of the NYT column sums up the situation:
The rich themselves are some of the most distressed. “None of the dialogue about taxes has anything to do with fairness,” Mr. Ross lamented. “Certain rich people are paying way more than their fair share and other rich people are paying a lot less. I’d like to see a conversation take place along nonideological lines where everyone is asked to pay their fair share, where everyone makes some payment, even if it’s one dollar. Everyone I know is so disgusted. People aren’t stupid. They know what’s going on. At the end of the day, the system is broken.”Thank you Mr Ross and Mr Stewart.♠
Regards — Cliff
♠ Of course, these chaps do live and work in places like New York City and New Jersey and Conneticutt, rather than the more moderately taxed Massachusetts. We are in the middle of the pack, believe it or not.
I never hear much protest about the 48 - 50% who pay absolutely NO taxes and use, as Elizabeth Warren likes to chastise, the highways and other government provided "necessities." So...if one doesn't pay a penny in taxes that is okay because "they can't afford it" but if the so-called rich don't pay enough (strangely...not by THEIR standards...always by someone who estimates that their contribution isn't enough), it is obscene because "they can afford it."
ReplyDeleteOf course, note also that politicians are NEVER castigated for not paying enough...even though most of them DON'T for many reasons.
Yes...the tax laws are broken.....but they are broken because American society is broken due to unrestrained envy and a desire to have anything and everything, but not to have to work hard for it....or at all. There is something very wrong with a society that pays more monthly to a crack Momma with 5 illegitimate kids by 5 different fathers..than they pay me for spending 33 years of my life in Service to that society.
It is a broken society that gives someone a free credit card that allows them to waltz into a supermarket and purchase pounds and pounds of rib eye steak and frozen lobster meat while I have to pay "market price," simply because I work and they don't. Or buy a round trip airline ticket to the Bahamas and a resort hotel room...all on the government welfare credit card. BTW....those are NOT anomalies or "outliers"......just liars and cheats.
So it is much....much...MUCH more than a broken tax code.