Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (312643)	11/27/2006 3:47:06 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572748

CJ, > This all started with your claim that every time you got a raise, 40% went to the feds. I was just wondering how you came to that conclusion. Oops, my bad. Let me restate: 40% goes to taxes in general. > It isn't mere coincidence that high costs states like California also have higher wages on the average. That's a chicken-n-egg argument if ever I saw one. One thing you can argue about California is the big gap between rich and poor. Nice climate and all that attracts the higher wages, but then that increases real estate and other costs of living. Then that really screws over the poorer people, especially those in the ghettos and barrios. So how do you solve it? By taxing the rich? Funny how even in this situation, the rich stay rich, the poor stay poor, and the only ones hurt are the upwardly mobile. In other words, taxing the rich only helps preserve the very class imbalance that you are trying to compensate for in the first place. I've always been a proponent of better education, though. Not vouchers, which I think is an ill-conceived idea to begin with, but actually improving the standards of public education, from what we provide our kids to what we expect out of them. That to me is perhaps the best investment any government can make into society. That and maybe programs to research alternative energy sources. Tenchusatsu

To: combjelly who wrote (312643)	11/30/2006 12:51:03 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1572748

Obviously, the rich aren't a bottomless pool. But neither are they shouldering the bulk without getting any benefits. No civilization can function without them. Citizens in the US have one of the lightest tax burdens in the developed world. And this is despite having the single most expensive military on the globe. And the cost of the military is part of the reason the American safety net for its citizens is rather lame compared to the safety nets for other first world countries.