Sorry, Pal, You're Rich

I'm not going to argue that people in the top 2% of earners are rich or poor. My only point is that is it fair that only the top 2% should only be taxed more to help our country? These top 2% already pay over 40% of all taxes!

Why is it that the majority of people (65%) who do NOT believe 250K are elite rich, wrong? Why is it that the overwhelming majority cannot possibly be right? Because we live in a country where the vocal minority has their voice listened to. Every person who read this article has their own opinion. That is great! That???s what makes us free, to have differing opinions. But I am tired of being wrong because of the salary I make.
My wife and I are both two generations removed from coal miners. How in two generations have we gotten to this point? Because we were lucky? Because we just happen to hit the jackpot? No. Because we worked hard and made difficult decisions about our life that afforded us the ability to succeed. Please stop begrudging me the benefits of a salary earned. Just because I make more, doesn???t mean I haven???t worked harder to receive it. And to know that I will owe more (in terms of percentage) because I make more, is just nauseating.

Why is it that the majority of people (65%) who do NOT believe 250K are elite rich, wrong? Why is it that the overwhelming majority cannot possibly be right? Because we live in a country where the vocal minority has their voice listened to. Every person who read this article has their own opinion. That is great! That???s what makes us free, to have differing opinions. But I am tired of being wrong because of the salary I make.
My wife and I are both two generations removed from coal miners. How in two generations have we gotten to this point? Because we were lucky? Because we just happen to hit the jackpot? No. Because we worked hard and made difficult decisions about our life that afforded us the ability to succeed. Please stop begrudging me the benefits of a salary earned. Just because I make more, doesn???t mean I haven???t worked harder to receive it. And to know that I will owe more (in terms of percentage) because I make more, is just nauseating.

I would love to make 250,000. I could retire in shortime. People that complain that isn't enough need to stop spending so much. I live on $1o,ooo+- every year. So don't tell me it can't be done. It is hard at times, but I still live.

Hey,what about the poor working stiff like me ,I am not making $100,000

21 years at 20,000 or less family of 4 we did it
Today I make 8000 a year, now tell me what, or how long i can live on just one years income of 250,000!
Not everyone had the oppertunity to collage in the 60-70s to prosper today. Fact is most of us who are in the age group of 45-55 know we got screwed when the "Aprenticeship" programs fell through, to younger cheaper workers, Retirement ment fired two years from, just to dodge the benifits earned, that the company did not want to pay. The furture we worked for. Today we live check to check cause it's all gone, like Enron!!!

I have been reading the comments on here an there are good arguments for both sides. Let me ask you this..out of all the people complaining that the "rich" don't pay enoug in taxes to help the poor... How much did you give to help the poor and less fortunate than you? How often have you donated your time and services for those poor children who are hungry and homeless? If you did , then great! You are good human being. What gives you the right to look at someone else and determine who they should spend thier money. You have no more right to do that to somenoe than they have to do it to you. I work really hard and so does my husband and we don't make alot of money but we don't begrudge someone their success and thier money. I don't want anything I haven't worked and detest that there are people out there that want to sit with thier hands out begging for others to take care of them. Not everyone in life is going to make 250K per year....thats life get over it. Why do we bother educating our children or sending them to college if not to get a good education so that they can get good jobs and earn good pay. It seems futile if when they grow up they just sit at home and wait for a government check to arrive. What most people don't realize is that the "silent majority" (i.e. people who actually work for a living at all income levels and don't expect a handout from anybody) is getting pretty pissed off at you whining people who expect us to pay for you. You wan free healthcare, college education, free 401K and a whole list of things that the government should provide for us. Where do you think the money is going to come from? People have to work in order to provide for themselves. There is no way around it! If you think that these form of governments work...they don't. You can't give up all your freedom so that you can get a hand out. It doesn't matter if you think 250k is good money or not enough money. it's not your money in your bank account and you have no right to tell anybody how to spend thier money. If you stick to that logic then your next on the chopping block. What if your making 40,000 a year trying to support your family and someone who makes 20,000 starts complaining that you make more than them. So you owe them something now. You should pay higher taxes so that their kids can go to school and get free health care and the list goes on. That is your money in your bank account,that you worked for, you earned and is for your american dream. If you want to personally donate money to help the less fortunate then fine that is your decision. You should not be forced to give something you earned away. You can label anybody, rich, poor, middle-class whatever. The next time you start spouting off "you should give more to the less fortunate" ask yourself how much have you given. Also ask yourself what if the government was coming after your bank account because all of a sudden your 50K, 40K 30K is all of a sudden too m

Scaling back tax cuts to put a group of people whose income is disproportionate to the median is the issue. However, those who believe they are not so divergent from the mean should understand that, statistically, being beyond a standard deviation is unlikely, but being beyond 2 standard deviations is truely lucky. See http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/dinctabs.html.

Sorry about the typos. This site doesn't work well with the Firefox browser.

To the person "APPOSED" to Obama's views, removing tax breaks for the upper class is not about removing incentives for people to seek wealth. The incentive should be far beyond how your taxes will be affected. Increasing taxes for some to decrease taxes for others is not a novel idea; it has just been done in the wrong direction for too long.

I love when people think I got lucky to be in a comfortable position (500K+). I barely graduated High School and took loans to go to a state school (barely accredited). What I did do was read every waking hour when my friends went out partying and I got ahead. I wish I could have enjoyed my 20's and early 30's, but I was too busy building a career. Some people like to talk about how hard they work, but if they really looked themselves in the eye they could have work harder (no TV, just get home and read and learn a skill). It's amazing how I got through my 20's on 4-5 hours of sleep a night and working 7 days a week.

If you don't want that type of life, I fully understand (I'm jealous of people that have fun - I missed my 20's) - but stop trying to take an unfair portion of what I worked for.

Wow, that's great. I am TEACHING you in your $60,000 a year education, and I make less than you are paying. Your parents, in a few years will get an extra $120,000 a year that they don't have (sacrifice? You don't know the meaning of the word, truthfully) which will be more than twice what the top salary at my university will pay me until I make full professor. I quit a twenty plus year career as what you apparently would call a lower class wage as a manager in a pharma company to take a 50% pay cut, and you actually think your parents aren't rich? And I can tell you they don't work harder than I do. I know. I have been on both sides of the fence. Trust me when I say, I know better than you do. I don't feel sorry for you. $120,000 or even a $90,000 one, is, unfortunately, an anathema to me. I will never achieve it in my career. Accept it - just because your parents, or you, spend to the limits of your income (I did it too when I was making $120,000 in today's dollars) doesn't make you any less rich. It just makes you less frugal.

I've discovered that as income goes up so does debt ( payment obligations). Based upon how much is left over at the end of the month is how people determine wealth. Never mind that from $250K they put 10% into a 401K, and the max in an IRA, drive a $50K car, pay $5k in child support and pay for that $500K house. Then say I have no money.
Step back from your world and say ???If I made $120K how would I get by???? People do get by on less than $50K per year. It all comes down to lifestyle. What can I live without?
Should the tax breaks be taken away from the $250K class and up? YES. Should it be taken away from the under $250K class? YES
I think that the whole tax system needs to re-worked. If a person makes $250K a year and pays less tax then a person making $150K a year, then there is a problem.
Maybe the tax laws should change to allow a max. amount of deductions and tax shelters. For example, after $75K in deductions and adjustments the rest is taxable.
Trust me if I could stash away the whole thing and not pay taxes, I would not care what rate you tax me at. A person making $500K a year may have a larger percent of income to invest in TAX free investment then a person making $250K and so on. So now the person making $500K may pay 20% while the person making $250K pays 30% and the person making $150K per year pays 33% in taxes.
Is that Fair?

descodav, you're offensive. I have a PhD and three masters degrees and don't feel that I have any right to make 10 times the working poor. People are poor for myriad reasons. I ended up in foster care (long story), but my brothers and sisters were raised by a schizophrenic, ex-prostitute who was in and out of mental hospitals, They were failed. They slept on the floors, because their were not enough beds. When one died, the neighborhood came together to bury her. My brothers and sisters couldn't wait to turn 16 years old, so thatthey could go to work. And each dropped out of school and has held a job since then. They are poor, but richer in perserverance and raw intelligence than you will ever be.

We live just south of Seattle, and make $113k annually. We live in a house that is worth $400k. While not rich, by anyone's standards, we are doing okay. If we made more than $250k per year, we would be rolling in dough. That is rich, in my book. Nobody in our social circle makes that much. Happy, indeed, I would be were that my annual income!

You who pull down that kind of money and not count yourself as rich need to re-examine where you spend your money...greedy, greedy, greedy people...

It's not that those making 250K are rich. Rather, its that the 98% below are living somewhere between finacial delusion and making ends meet. That's America today. Anybody making less than 250K risks financial ruin after medical, college, retirement (or lack thereof) expenses at the drop of a hat.

I have bounced from 125k to 240k to 150k in the past three years, have a mortgage of $170k, yet I cannot afford to send my children to private schools, and this is with no consumer debt - none, no car loans, credit cards etc. Biggest expense is taxes, retirement savings, and insurance, and my disability insurance is woefully underfunded.