Where to begin............
General theme of your statements: FUCK YOU! I'VE GOT MINE!
You probably don't believe that your political stance will result in this reality, but make no mistake, it will!
First off, you said the following, "Cuts to Social Security as well, provided they don't cut benefits I and my employer paid for. See, Social Security is a contract between my employer, me, and the government. The government can't break that contract without my approval."
Well actually... your generation voted overwhelming for tax cuts and wars costs that have robbed the social security trust fund. You see, the $2.5 trillion worth of "money" that is supposed to be stored in the Social Security fund has been siphoned off to the Treasury Department to pay for the 2001 and 2003 Bush Tax Cuts that have cost us $1.285 Trillion to date! Additionally, the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars have cost us an estimated $1.48 trillion.
Cost of National Security - Notes and Sources
So let's see, the total cost to date of the Bush Tax cuts and Wars have cost at the very least, $2.73 trillion so far! This does not include the interest we'll have to pay on that debt, nor does it consider the money that will be needed to care for our disabled veterans! You see, there's actually NO MONEY in the social security fund! It's actually just IOUs thanks to uninformed conservatives voters like you. Now, the conservative leadership of this country wants to continue to perpetrate fraud on the younger folks, so that "they get theirs" until the system crashes. Oh by the way, the US Government does NOT view your contributions as a "contract".
How Your Social Security Money Was Stolen – Where Did the $2.5 Trillion Surplus Go? | AmpedStatus
According to a 1960 US Supreme Court ruling, "In a 1960 ruling by the United States Supreme Court, the court ruled that nobody has a “contractual earned right“ to Social Security benefits. - See more at:
How Your Social Security Money Was Stolen – Where Did the $2.5 Trillion Surplus Go? | AmpedStatus
Nobody has a contractual earned right to social security benefits." So much for your thought that you have a "right" to social security! You old folks need to share some of the pain too, specifically those who are independently wealthy. It's not okay to vote against tax increases, fight vehemently against tax increases with the Grover Norquist Pledge, and then pass a pile of burning shit onto the next generation that is the result of your unwillingness to do what's necessary to secure the finances of this country!
As was stated previously by Glen, income inequality is massive and threatens the very existence of our democracy! Let's look at the numbers, the top 1 percent of American citizens bring in about 23% of annual earnings. Additionally, the top 1 percent of Americans owns a whopping 34.6% of the nation's wealth! The top 10% of Americans own 80% of the nation's wealth! Furthermore, the top 400 families own more than the bottom 53% of Americans citizens, just 400 families! The bottom 43% of American citizens have less wealth than the 6 heirs to the Walmart fortune! Some of this information can be found in this article,
The Great Regression: Robert Reich's New Film Mainstreams the Dangers of Income Inequality
Among nations of the world, we rank 44th out of 88 nations in wealth equality, just behind that great bastion of equality, Nigeria (sarcasm)!
Map: How the world
Nigeria has such bad inequality that they won't invest in water wells for their people despite the fact that they're one of the strongest oil producers in the world! We're behind them! So much for America being the land of opportunity!
You're damn fucking right we should tax the rich! They have the money, and thanks to policies like Citizen's United, they use their money to undermine the integrity of our elections to gain even more of the share of the pie. I do believe that ordinary Americans should pay more taxes, but only after they're given living wages that are reflective of productivity increases. Since 1975, productivity has increased by 100% and wages have remained flat for ordinary Americans! CEO pay is now over 840 times the average salary of someone working in their company. That's up from 42 times the average working in 1980!
CEOs earn 380 times in pay more than average worker - Apr. 19, 2012
This is morally bankrupt!
Google Image Result for http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/US_productivity_and_real_wages.jpg
A while back, the Rethuglicans in congress requested a study be conducted to analyze for a correlation between tax increases on the wealthy and job creation. Here's the study, guess what they found!
http://www.dpcc.senate.gov/files/documents/CRSTaxesandtheEconomy Top Rates.pdf
I quote the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, "The top income tax rates have changed considerably since the end of World War II. Throughout the late-1940s and 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was typically above 90%; today it is 35%.
Additionally, the top capital gains tax rate was 25% in the 1950s and 1960s, 35% in the 1970s; today it is 15%. The average tax rate faced by the top 0.01% of taxpayers was above 40% until the mid-1980s; today it is below 25%. Tax rates affecting taxpayers at the top of the income distribution are currently at their lowest levels since the end of the second World War.
The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009. Tax policy could have a relation to how the economic pie is sliced—lower top tax rates may be associated with greater income disparities."
More tax payers?? YES; but specialized training in what? And who pays for that, and who decides if that training has a good return on the investment? Too many highly educated but unemployable people saddled with college debt now.
Training for high tech manufacturing jobs! Germany and Japan both bring in about 20% of the revenue from iphone sales! The US brings in a measly 6% of the revenue. These are both high-wage countries. The difference is that their employees have specific skills needed, which aren't readily available in the US. This is why we need more investment in specific types of education! It should be paid by raising taxes on the rich!
Redistribute the wealth?? Why, what the hell did I do to deserve a piece of Bill Gates, or Warren Buffets money?
Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, et al. pay less money as a percentage of their income than you likely do, if you're still working for a living! Not only is this less than a flat tax would yield, but they PAY LESS AS A PERCENTAGE THAN WORKING AMERICANS! This is called the carried interest loophole which allows the investment class to pay 15% capital gains tax on their investments!
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/o...-an-unjust-privilege-for-financiers.html?_r=0
For the record Bill Gates and Warren Buffet don't support your taxation views, and both of them advocate that millionaires and billionaires pay more of a percentage of their income in taxes!
I mean, you want to talk redistribution? I don't have a whitewater raft. Why the hell can't I have yours? How many life jackets you got?? I could use a new one..........
Stupid is as stupid does....... after all of this discussion, I don't feel the need to elaborate.
I saw somewhere that each taxpayer "owes" $1.1 MILLION to offset the debt. If we can't get those robbers in Washington to stop spending until the debt is under control we need to vote them out of there. I'm all for paying "My fair share" (whatever that is) but dammit, I expect everyone else to as well. Including the "47%", whoever they are.[/QUOTE]
The robbers in Washington spent your money on tax cuts for people that don't need them and wars. They're planning to take your medicare and social security, NOT your guns... that is until you realize what they've screwed your kids over, then they'll take your angry kids' guns.
By the way, thanks for having such little regard for future generations! I proposed modest things we can do to secure the future of this country and you're unwilling to go along with them because you have the sickness, "Fuck YOU I've GOT MINE" syndrome.
One last thought, here's a graph of federal spending. Ask yourself how you'll balance the budget by cutting discretionary spending when it only accounts for a measly 17% of the Federal Budget? After all, you don't want to cut your benefits which amount to a whoping 45% of the Federal Budget!
File:U.S. Federal Spending - FY 2011.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I hope your generation is proud of the fact that they're borrowing money they spent long ago on tax cuts and wars to fund their own welfare state. I wouldn't be angry with you except that you're unwilling to compromise on revenue We're currently borrowing to fund past obligations to YOU while we quit investing in education, infrastructure and research and development. You should feel really proud of yourselves. 'MERICA, FUCK YEA! Stupid inbreeds! God Damn Teabaggers!!!
I'm sick of wasting time on ignorant people!