rbursek wrote:Ed,
"he was not paying his fair share." What is his "fair share"? What the tax law sez or what your conscience sez, or what someone who is paying taxes at the rate the law sez and resents you for paying what the law sez, because it is less? Then we should resent the person who makes the same income but is frugal and has more $ in the bank, or the bigger house, ect. We all have choices, if someone chooses to work harder instead of smarter, well that is there choice. If someone chooses, not to clip coupons, send in rebate forms, ect, save/invest, be financially lazy, think that getting rich is a one thing deal, exp, win the lotto, inheritance ect. It is not that way for most affluent people, they accumulated it over a period of time, by saving/investing, putting that amount away each month, then with what is left buy the luxuries. The mentality today is buy the luxuries first, then if I have anything left, put it in the bank.
It is beyond me why someone would want to buy a new car? Knowing it just depreciated driving it off the lot, instead of buying a 3 year old car. Buying a bigger house, more expense in taxes, utilities, mortgage interest, maintenance, ect. If you look historically at owning a house, and calculate in all the cost it is, it is not a great investment. The majority of the home owners hitting 55-60 years old still have some type of loan on there house. The banks want to have you take out a second and a third, so you can buy that Harley, that boat, RV, there business is collecting dept interest.
You are throwing in all kinds of variables that I never included. There are many ways to accumulate wealth, from making more money to be frugal living.
What i'm talking about is people that "play" the tax system. In the end they enjoy everything tax money affords but they personally have not contributed anything to it. They are parasites living off society. They may be rich parasites but unless they contribute equally they are still parasites.
Somehow the false idea has become fact that we don't have to worry about it the Government will pay for it. And the most brilliant, shrewdest, and those we should most emulate are the people that don't pay their taxes.
Gone is the concept of shouldering the load, paying our own way, paying for your seat.
We have farmers plowing under crops because it is better to get paid the Government subsidy than harvest and sell the corp. We have corporations building buildings that they know they will never have full tenants for because they know the tax write off they will get will more than they could make renting it. We have companies destroying food because the write off is more than they could get selling by reducing the price. The list is endless.
We have corporations earning billions and paying less tax than a blue collar worker. Somehow that does not seem fair to me.
There are doctors pocketing $1 million a year and pay less taxes than the guy making $35,000 a year. Somehow that does not seem fair to me.
Sure we can say they "worked"/"played" the system and should be rewarded for being smart enough to do that. I say REALLY????
In 1978 the Supreme Court ruled that a national bank could charge the highest interest rate of ANY branch in ANY state, which basically eliminated any and all State Usury laws. North Dakota saw the opportunity and nearly eliminated any cap. That is why many high interest credit cards are issued out of North Dakota. Interest fuels company and job growth. Most companies need to borrow to continue. The Fair Tax system would need an index based upon both Federal interest rates and consumer rates. Since a bank change your interest rate on a whim (kind of like Treasury printing money), planning a cost for a product could vary drastically. 
Who gets the shaft? 
It won't take long for them to become part of the problem. 
It's just the nature of politics. 
