>A windfall of $200K or more (after deductions) in a year gets taxed pretty heavily, and it only goes up from there. You argue that it doesn't fall in the highest tax bracket, but that doesn't matter. The progressive tax curve on the federal level is rather sharp, and even at $200K, marginal income is taxed at above 30%.
And you have every single one of your basic needs far since met. And at that point, it's a ton easier to make more money than it is under that line...
>Do you see how that tax rate is the equivalent of lotto taxes? And this is NOT a rare scenario at all. This goes to the heart of small business and the nature of their unsteady incomes, not to mention individuals who work on contract, entrepreneurs, and other pursuers of the American dream.
Except it is a rare scenario. This:
"People that make, say, between $0 and $200K in most years and suddenly make, in income (not capital gains), between $750K and $2 million in a single year?"
is simply not a common thing. Heck, the number of people that make that amount of money at all is really small.
And when did the American dream become being absurdly wealthy? The '80s? Greed is good? For most, it's nothing like that. The American dream for most is a nice little house, a spouse, a couple of kids, a couple of cars in the driveway, a good education, health, and a secure retirement. For most people I know who didn't start out wealthy, that's really all they want. THAT should be easy to achieve. If helping the vast majority of Americans get that is at the expense of making it a bit harder to become Bill Gates, well, that's just the 1940s-1970s (unless, of course, you were a minority during that time).
-Z |
