Sometimes stupid loses

"Walter Banks" wrote in message
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Neil Harrington wrote:

"Walter Banks" wrote in message


Bill has been like a lot of the vocal Constitutional rights folks that
selectively read their rights and miss the responsibilities to a
civilized society parts.

Where are "the responsibilities to a civilized society parts"?

The U.S. Constitution is mainly a document laying out the organization and
responsibilities of government, written in outline form. The first ten
amendments, the Bill of Rights, set limits on what the government can do, in
terms of government's power over the states and the people. I haven't
noticed any "responsibilities to a civilized society parts" that place any
sort of obligation on the people, if that's what you meant.

The US Constitution does say anything about that , which actually
was my point.

The founding fathers assumed that a citizen was a responsible member
of society. There is a fundamental assumption that people who live in
the United States did so in the best interest of the society they lived in.



The only people who speak of "trickle down economics" are those who believe,
with a kind of religious fervor, that some people have too much money and
others have too little, and this should be corrected by taking lots of money
away from the former and distributing it to the latter. We've already been
doing that, more or less, on and off, for the better part of a century, and
it has never fixed anything.

This is not how I understand trickle down economics. Lower corporate
taxes and revenue will rise and corporations can create jobs for a riskier
activity producing more overall revenue. These tax breaks actually
reduced tax revenue and produced limited benefits.

The problem with the FDR/Obama scheme is that once taxes become confiscatory
on the higher earners, they just stop earning so much. As a result, GDP
inevitably goes down. This is supposed to help the economy?

This certainly has not happened in Canada and the EU (Ireland and
Portugal are exceptions) What it has done in make the EU very productive.
The EU GDP is now similar to that of the US

Actually it did work, as well as could be expected in the circumstances. If
it were not for government (mostly Democrat) meddling in the housing market
and demanding that lenders write a lot of high-risk mortgages, we wouldn't
be in the mess we're in now. Do you really forget that ALL THIS started with
the subprime lending disaster that had its origins in the 1990s?

The housing market has lots of blame to go around. There is a whole list of
problems. A relatively unregulated Banking Industry, political push
and wink wink nod nod packaging of good and bad loans. There was
not a single simple cause. I don't think there has been a bank failure in
Canada in my lifetime. In the three years I lived in NH both the bank
that I used initially and the one that bought its assets after it failed.


I for one am very glad we have a lot of extremely wealthy people. They pay
most of the income taxes, reducing my tax load susbtantially. Take their
wealth away and "spread it around a little" and my taxes will go up. A lot.
And so will yours, even if you're one of the 50% or so that right now pay no
income taxes at all.

I suspect that it isn't the extremely wealthy that pay most of the taxes
but those with family incomes from $100K to $250K. Above that
a lot of income is not taxable and overall rates are lower.

Your suspicion is incorrect. Earners of 250K and above represent the top 2% of
earners in the country. They pay 40% of all income taxes.

I am far from suggesting wealth re-distribution per-se. Just basic
organizational changes would make a big difference. I lived in a town
of about 4-5000 in NH it two private garbage services that picked up
garbage. Two different trucks picked up garbage on the street at my
home on different days. A simple community contract for a single provider
of garbage pickup to a town owned dumpsite would have made a
significant difference in costs.

I pay more taxes for someone similar to me in the US. Many of the
things that are included in my taxes are separate private expense
items in the US so my cost of living is lower. This despite lower
population density and higher transportation costs. The Canadian
corporate tax maximum rate is currently 16.5%, it not coming from
them.

Health care is lower cost per individual, everyone is covered and
there are no administrative middle men in the process. There is a
single payer. The providers are private doctors and clinics.

None of this is preventing rich Canadians, (Germans or
French)

The frustration that I see in Washington is it is clear that
government and services (private and government) could
and should cost a good deal less but few there have the
strength to make most of it happen.

I need coffee.

w..

Pete Stavrakoglou wrote:

I suspect that it isn't the extremely wealthy that pay most of the taxes
but those with family incomes from $100K to $250K. Above that
a lot of income is not taxable and overall rates are lower.

Your suspicion is incorrect. Earners of 250K and above represent the top 2% of
earners in the country. They pay 40% of all income taxes.

I stand by my comments. The 0-$250K group by your statement
represent 60% of the taxes. $100K to $250K group pay taxes on
earned income. On taxes per dollar income they pay more than
any other group.

w..