Posted: 1/14/2003 10:18:37 AM EDT
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This is a VERY simple way to understand the tax laws. Read on - it does make you think!! Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men -- the poorest -- would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1, the sixth would pay $3, the seventh $7, the eighth $12, the ninth $18, and the tenth man -- the richest -- would pay $59. That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement -- until one day, the owner threw them a curve (in tax language a tax cut). "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." So now dinner for the ten only cost $80.00. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six -- the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?" The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, Then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59. Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man, but he, (pointing to the tenth) got $7!". "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man, "I only saved a dollar, too, ........It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!". That's true!" shouted the seventh man, why should he get $7 back when I got only $2?" The wealthy get all the breaks!" Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late what was very important. They were FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS short of paying the bill. Imagine that! And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. Where would that leave the rest? Unfortunately, most taxing authorities anywhere cannot seem to grasp this rather straight-forward logic. BigDozer66 |
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All I want to know is, when is Hielo taking us all out to dinner??? [:D] It is amazing to me to read letters to the editors, or in my case, also from the editors, decrying how the poor are getting shafted in the Bush tax cut, and the "rich" are greedy and evil. Gotta love the welfare state mentality. Who is John Gault??? |
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Actually, it goes more like this: The ten men go out for dinner. The first 4 not only eat for free, they also get paid for eating by #5, 6, and 7. 5, 6 and 7 bring their own food in brown bags and get charged for everytime they inhale and exhale. On their way out of the restaurant they get mugged by a Mexican family who demand free food and the menu in Spanish. 8 and 9 decide the food is too expensive and order Chinese, and have a 12 course meal for 50 cents, which is why 3 and 4, who used to be a cook and a waiter, have no money in first place. 10 eats for free, grabs the contents of the register, collects all the money from the patrons and sends it overseas. |
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Great example. I am not the richest guy in the bunch but neither am I the guy eating for free. I believe in the Bush tax cuts. I also want there to be more. I dont mind helping someone out when they are in need. But I do mind paying for someones existence from cradle to grave, just because they wont get off their ass and find a job or MAYBE start their own business (since no one knows best how its done except them) I personally have seen 5th and 6th generation welfare people. They have NO self worth, and for the most part expect me to give them more because I am working to try to get ahead, and they "can't" [soapbox] God Bless America, land that I love. |
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I addressed this fable in another [url=http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=163779&w=myTopicPop]post[/url] last week. It has some problems, I think. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. Further, if there are only 9 at dinner, the cost of the dinner should be reduced to 0.9*80, or $72. If the remaining 9 contribute as per the reduced plan, the shortfall is not $52, but $44. Further still, the 9th man is now the wealthiest, if the 10th man is gone. A strong case could be made to adjust the distribution according to the new population. Or is the hypothetical case that the wealthy will no longer be wealthy but stay in the population? If that's the case, then there would be, say two #9 men. Again, a re-analysis of the distribution is warranted. Or is the moral of the story supposed to be that the freeloaders are jettisoned from the system? Where, then, do they eat? Is there some source of food external to the story? If you remove the five freeloaders, then there are only four men left so share a $32 bill, prorated from the previously stated discount rate. With the same distribution as before, there is now still a $4 shortfall. This fable has intrigued me for years, as I mentioned before. It's kind of the same as the three guys who check into a hotel and pay the desk clerk $10 each, for a total of $30. The hotel manager later tells the desk clerk that these guys get a discout - 3 guys for $25, and tells the clerk to refund $5 to 3 guys. After trying to figure out exactly what 1/3 of a cent looks like, the clerk decides to give each guy $1 back, and pocket the extra $2. But wait: 3*$9=27 + $2 = $29! Where did the other dollar go? Well, it doesn't work like that. There was an instance of $30 put into the system, and a later instance of $5 taken out of the system. The system has the $25 it was due, and the $5 was distributed unevenly among four recipients. No trick. Again, I like the posted fable, but it is easily broken down by a little further analysis. Imagine the fun a Socialist would have breaking it down. [ Edited for proper context ] |
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In any event once the Federales get YOUR money they consider it to be THEIR money. And to get any of it back in services or whatever you now have to do what THEY SAY. So you send in your hard earned money so that some bonehead who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground can tell you how he's going to spend your money [whacko] |