Sorry, Pal, You're Rich

news flash swong6, Obama "doesn't worry where he has his next meal" either.

I think toolkien is right!

The "rich" are those who don't have to work.

I happen to believe btw that taxes are evil because they're predicated upon the assumption that the government owns your labor ( and therefore YOU ). Income taxes are the worst offender. If the government wants to collect revenue, lets do it by way of trade tariffs and sales tax on everything except food, clothes and medicine. At least then, struggling families can control their degree of participation with the system. If that's not enough to balance the budget, cut spending until it does.

My employer can pay me $250K a year. I will gladly be called rich!!

In response to cjsteve:
If you are making 250k gross and living in NYC, you are paying 100k in taxes, and only leaving you with 150k net. When you factor in the average rent is 5k a month and the average mortgage is 7k a month. You are not really making a lot of money. We need to go to the fair tax when everyone would pay the same whenever one is purchasing goods for consumption.

For those of us who actually had to finance our college education and professional schooling based on private loans, god forbid we meet someone in professional school and fall in love and get married, then we graduate together with close to $250,000 in education (private loan at exorbitant interest rates) debt. Now if we together are also pulling in $250,000 after a few hard working years, but still financing these great loans, how is it that we are rich when we cannot even afford 2 cars, a house or even cable TV???

This is why a flat tax is a better alternative. Everyone pays the relative same. As well All taxes do not go just to goverment giveaways as some comments have replied. Corporate welfare is higher I believe than family welfare is. The reason the rich do not favor a flat tax is that they will no longer be able to hide their fortune in slush funds and investments for personal wealth gains. Try doing this on 100,000 or less with a family of 4 these days.

All that matters is how far your income goes WHERE YOU LIVE. 250K is NOT rich in Washington D.C. and if you think it is you don't live here. I live in Alexandria, Virginia in a 1500 sq. foot house that cost $632,000. I have a much different standard of living than I would if I made this money and live in say Alabama. Yet I am taxed the same as the person with my income in Alabama. Not fair. There needs to be a cost of living factor regarding federal income tax!!!!!!!!!!

in respons to cjsteve, according to your math (which I am not disputing), someone earning $250,000 in New York City would net 66.1% of their salary whereas someone earning $50,000 in Pennsylvannia would net 68.8% of their salary. The difference is 2.7% ($6,768.54 from the "rich person's standpoint"). That comes down to $130/week extra tax for someone earning $250,000/year. Who needs this money more? The single mother with three kids working two jobs and 60 hours a week? Or the guy living an above-par life bitter about the next door neighbor's $2 million bonus? Have some compassion. And EffYou, don't pretend as if you would voluntarily "help the less fortunate." Claiming that on your income tax return under false pretenses does not count. Widening the income gap is not beneficial for any country or economy.

What a crock. Why don't people realize that this is a Red Herring. The true people that need taxed are mega millionaires. You punish people with a salary that work hard for it. The people who need taxed are the wealthy, which is not as much based on what you earn, but how much money you have. If you look at Warren Buffet and his ilk, you will see that his networth went up by $5 or $10 billion, yet his tax bill was a few million dollars. Less than 1%. That is the true travesty. They will say its for old people that they should not raise the Capital Gains tax... and that is true up to a point. My thoughts are if you have more than $10 million saved up, your capital gains should be much higher. Don't confuse Wealthy people and people who earn a paycheck. As a small business owner, my overall tax bill is 2x's what I bring home. What people also need to realize is that not only are they paying taxes themselves, but everything they purchase has taxes built into it. This means that over 90% of your income goes to taxes. All so the government can take away our rights, waste our money, commit fraud by stealing our money, put us and our children in debt and enrich themselves. Again, this is a red herring. They want to tax people who work hard for their money, they need to tax Wealthy people who do nothing but sit around and count how many 10's or 100's of millions of dollars they have accumulated. Those are the people who need to pay taxes. This is the problem with letting the rich and rich attorneys run this country.

It seems to me that being rich (in the strictly financial sense) depends more on accumulated wealth than current income. A pair of young lawyers or doctors might have a combined income of $250K but be starting from zero and burdened with huge education debts. Clearly they are not rich; but a person netting $250K from his investment portfolio unquestionably is. Sadly, our system taxes the former at a much higher rate than the latter.

What you make is relative to where you live. In Alabama, $250k is rich. The big thing in all this is that we give more money to a do-nothing Congress that spends and spends and is not controlled. Democrats failed on their big promises to revamp Congress, Republicans weren't any better. We are in yet another situation where we will vote for the lesser of two evils for President. Until we can get more fiscally responsible lawmakers, we will continue to deepen our debt. I'm all for providing services for the elderly, the children, and folks with disabilities. I am very tired of paying for folks who won't work. It is very aggravating to see the hundreds of job listings and yet hear every day from people who can they can't find a job. The truth is they either aren't wanting a job because we taxpayers are paying for welfare, OR they won't take a job because they feel they are above having to work.

Tax fairly = flat tax. Then we can't argue any more about taxes. The only thing to do at that point is hold govt accountable for spending the money wisely. No small task. But at least one issue can be done away with. Flat tax. National sales tax. Whatever. Just keep it simple.

This just shows why the question of "what level of income qualifies as rich?" is not the joke that McCain suggests. It is of critical importance when evaluating tax policies. I don't care if someone feels rich. I do care about how government policies will affect my specific situation. Of course, I'm not rich by either McCain or Obama's standards.

Comment: sure they are rich but that's not the question. rather, it's how much more are we going to ask them to pay. a couple with an AGI of $250,000 is paying about $51,000 in fed taxes. if they live NY, one of those places you cite, they are paying $17,000 in state taxes, and if they're in NYC, they're paying another $10,000 in PIT. How much in taxes are those of you making $50,000 a year paying? well, actually, your total tax bill, living inNew York City, of federal state and local taxes is about $8,400. compared to $78,000 for someone at $250,000

Let people make money. Tax fairly - i.e. flat tax. Save the environment for future generations. That's the campaign I'm looking for.

$250k in Alabama is vastly different than in NYC. Until the Congress is more responsible with their spending, they shouldn't have any more hard-earned money to play with. Wasn't everyone somewhat enthused when the Democrats took over and had these big plans to change things? Didn't happen - we are in worse shape than ever. We are again in a place of voting for the lesser of two evils for President. We should clean house and get folks elected that can be fiscally responsible.