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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Koligman who wrote (24680)	9/19/2012 2:17:53 PM
From: TimF	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

where someone with a huge income pays a smaller percentage of it than an experienced nurse or other professional in many cases. Is that really the case? Capital gains tax rates aren't really easily directly comparable to ordinary income rates. 1 - When you own stock you are part owner of that company, and effectively if the company pays taxes, you're portion of the ownership is taxed proportionately. 2 - Capital gains taxes are not adjusted for inflation. A small real gain can be taxed as if it was a large gain. A real loss can be taxed as a gain. The rate is thus higher, and sometimes effectively infinite (or a divide by zero error) 3 - thebigquestions.com thebigquestions.com thebigquestions.com

To: John Koligman who wrote (24680)	9/19/2012 2:29:27 PM
From: Lane3	2 Recommendations Respond to of 42652

You have an interesting way of looking at things with the 'how many should he support' thing! I can't get around the hard numbers... You started this by talking about "fair share." Share implies some community to which one belongs. Fairness can only be viewed in terms of what the individual contributes or takes vis a vis the other members. It's a proportionality notion. Numbers are meaningless other than in the context of the proportion of the pie. There are a variety of ways to frame the pie. I chose one of them, the number of fellow members that he is supporting, a frame so vastly disproportionate that it should have given you pause, seems to me. where someone with a huge income pays a smaller percentage of it than an experienced nurse or other professional in many cases.. Rate (percentage) is a useful construct when looking at fairness. But actual dollars matter, too. Rate can be distracting from the fact that the secretary is paying next to nothing in actual dollars and Romney is paying a whole hell of a lot. If you double the secretary's rate or halve Romney's rate, she's still paying next to nothing and he's still paying a whole hell of a lot. When you get too focused on rate, the enormity of that difference can get lost.