Is this similar?
This is a VERY simple way to understand the tax laws.
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.
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. "But
he 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!