There is something I simply do not understand

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  1. ddsurfsca profile image70
    ddsurfscaposted 14 years ago

    I do not understand something guys, but I am sure I will get straightened out----
       The main idea behind the republicans thinking, if I am understanding it correctly, is to give those people who have money, and own businesses, and so on tax cuts.  The theory behind this is so that they can afford to give those further down the poverty line, jobs.  Am I correct so far?
       OK, well here is the part I don't get.  If those well to do business owners get tax cuts, does this not leave the bulk of the taxes then to be paid by the run of the mill, working stiff.  Am I still correct?
       This does not make sense to me, for how are those working stiffs supposed to take the brunt of the needed revenue paying taxes, and still be able to have enough to ever own a business themselves. 
       It seems to me that this is why the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, and the middle working class is disappearing.  Why not make every citizen pay a percentage according to what they make or have.
       Republicans do not want to give handouts to the poor, they want them to work, but is it so hard to see what is happening?  Anyways, I need some well meaning and nice republican to explain this theory so it makes sense.  If it is done right, hell, maybe I will change parties.

    1. junko profile image75
      junkoposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      ddsurfsca: you know that none of that makes sense. You should also know that no Republican can make sense of the theory. They will boycott you and you want get no hit, on line. I think they have to say something and since millions believed Reagan back than, well. I also believe that there are a few million Republicans who want vote against their own self interest. They can't say it but if they can they will vote Democrat.

    2. profile image0
      Brenda Durhamposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Honestly, if I knew more about the ins and outs of the fiscal controversy, I'd help you out.
      My focus has been, and is, more on the social issues.  There's so much more to the Republican Party than money issues,  but those issues have been shoved aside moreso, by the distraction of Obama's health bill and his agenda.  Our Representatives haven't even had time nor opportunity to focus well on even the money issues, what with all the special-interest groups grabbing at their coattails.
      Is the money issue the main one that would decide your Party affiliation?
      Sorry I can't help ya with that.

    3. Ralph Deeds profile image69
      Ralph Deedsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Makes sense to me. Thanks to the establishment's worship of untrammeled free trade and WalMart, we've handed our manufacturing industry to China. As a result auto industry employment has been decimated, and the wages of remaining workers have been cut in half. Even so, it's doubtful that they will be competitive with Chinese workers making 90 cents an hour working in unsafe polluting plants, not to mention India's plans to flood the U.S. market with low priced cars. We have apparently turned our rare earth mining industry over to China putting us in a dependent position for a materials needed to make a variety of products.

      Rare and Foolish--Paul Krugman

      Some background: The rare earths are elements whose unique properties play a crucial role in applications ranging from hybrid motors to fiber optics. Until the mid-1980s the United States dominated production, but then China moved in.

      “There is oil in the Middle East; there is rare earth in China,” declared Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s economic transformation, in 1992. Indeed, China has about a third of the world’s rare earth deposits. This relative abundance, combined with low extraction and processing costs — reflecting both low wages and weak environmental standards — allowed China’s producers to undercut the U.S. industry.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/opini … ;st=Search

      "China, which produced 95% of the rare earths in 2010, had 37 percent of the proven reserves at that time. The imposition of export quotas in September, 2009, together with subsequent decreases reducing the quota below world demand,[6] and what appeared to be an embargo on rare earths by the Chinese in October, 2010 due to an international incident with Japan focused attention on other possible sources. News analysis by The New York Times showed that deposits of rare earths that exist in the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Brazil and other places are not being exploited, or at least not being refined outside China, due to environmental issues.[7]
      [edit] Technological applications
      These rare-earth oxides are used as tracers to determine which parts of a watershed are eroding. Clockwise from top center: praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium, and gadolinium.[8]

      The use of rare earth elements in modern technology has increased dramatically over the past years. Rare earth elements are now incorporated into many technological devices, including superconductors, samarium-cobalt and neodymium-iron-boron high-flux rare-earth magnets, electronic polishers, refining catalysts and hybrid car components (primarily batteries and magnets).[9] Rare earth ions are used as the active ions in luminescent materials used in optoelectronics applications, most notably the Nd:YAG laser. Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers are significant devices in optical-fiber communication systems. Phosphors with rare earth dopants are also widely used in cathode ray tube technology such as television sets. The earliest color television CRTs had a poor-quality red; europium as a phosphor dopant made good red phosphors possible. Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) spheres have been useful as tunable microwave resonators. Rare earth oxides are mixed with tungsten to improve its high temperature properties for welding, replacing thorium, which was mildly hazardous to work with. Many defense-related products also use rare earth elements as enhancers. For instance, night vision goggles, rangefinders, the SPY-1 radar used in some Aegis equipped warships, and the propulsion system of Arleigh Burke class destroyers all use rare earth elements in critical capacities.[10]" (Wikipedia)

      1. ddsurfsca profile image70
        ddsurfscaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

        Now I have learned something today.  This is the stuff that is not made public, or for that matter, a good portion of the public would not be interested or not understand.  My middle son is working for a company that only handles government contracts, and he is developing a wireless amplifier that has the technology that allows the user to be able to tune in (or out) any sound made on this side of the earth, and carried on microwave.  He said that the one he is designing right now can tune out the sun spots and listen to the frogs fart in south america, or tune out south america altogether and hear what the eskimos are making for dinner.  Rather scary, and he said that it is so simple, that it is basically copper wiring in a box, with special materials used for isulation.  I love to learn about things that we have not had ever before.  I just wish that we were a lot more responsible about what and how these things are used, and the public's resulting problems.

    4. qwark profile image60
      qwarkposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      DD:
      Why aren't you an NPA?
      Why are you choosing sides?
      What you need is an education in truth.
      All politicians are "corrupt." ALL!
      BIG MONEY makes the decisions.
      You are naive if you think any political party is able to function without the backing of monster corporations.
      I quit voting last year.
      I decided that this republic is functioning at the mercy of the federal reserve and the 10 major world banks...all backed by the rothschilds cabal.
      China owns our mortgage. He who owns the mortgage RULES.
      This is part and parcel of an international, under-the-table plan to gain control of world economy.
      Really tho, it won't matter. Humanity is headed for a massive reduction in its population. I predict this to happen within the next 50 yrs.

    5. uncorrectedvision profile image60
      uncorrectedvisionposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Conservative and liberal are complex concepts that require considerably more time and effort to clarify than invective filled threads on Hubpages can supply.  It is a conversation between human nature and society that has continued for centuries.  There are some who will tell you simple things that are tinged with resentment, half truth and personal misconceptions.  Conservative thought is the foundational thought of our National History. It is rooted in ideas about natural law theory and the enduring nature of civilization.  The idea that our today is built upon foundations of the past is a conservative idea.  We stand on the shoulders of giants not midgets. 
          We are, by our nature, free and meant to be so.  To take the product of a another's toil or genius merely to distribute it as one personally believes it should be distributed is to rob that other of the right to use their property as they believe is best and there by, elevate our personal judgment above the judgment of everyone else.  If we want people to give their money to the poor than it is incumbent upon us to convince them of the moral superiority of that action not to use the power of the state to force them to do as we wish.
          To FORCE others to do as we would personally wish them to do is the definition of tyranny.

      1. William R. Wilson profile image60
        William R. Wilsonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

        I'll support any government that tyrannizes the rich and powerful in order to help the poor.

        If you think that paying higher taxes = tyranny, I suggest you go live in a truly tyrannical nation for a while and then come back to the west and see if your thoughts have changed.   

        Letting the rich run roughshod over poor and working people is the real tyranny.

        1. JOE BARNETT profile image60
          JOE BARNETTposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          tell'em william!

    6. JOE BARNETT profile image60
      JOE BARNETTposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      they can't explain it. they just say things like it's no good. when you say "why" they just say " cuz it's no good".

      taxes used to be very high,70% and the country prospered. thats because big business would rather re-invest it, then pay taxes on it.that system worked. like when oprah gives everyone cars. she does that rather than pay taxes on it. she says well if i'm gonna lose it anyway it may as well be for something i want rather than giving that money to the gov't.this causes the economy to grow.

      well the system has changed now. the highest tax rate is 36% and has a million loopholes deductions and exemptions so that by the time they finish they pay zero taxes. general electric e.g. paid zero taxes last year or the year before, not one dollar and there are hundreds of companies doing this.or they move out of the country, reduce all expenses by 90percent.no insurance, i/4 the payroll, no unemployment etc. so the tax burden "is " put squarely on the peoples back. and they have swayed people that make 35000 a year or less to vote for them. they have no honor nor scruples

  2. Rochelle Frank profile image92
    Rochelle Frankposted 14 years ago

    According to the American Enterprise institute, a big portion of the federal income tax burden is shouldered by a small group of the richest Americans. The wealthiest 1 percent of the population earn 19 per cent of the income but pay 37 percent of the income tax. The top 10 percent pay 68 percent of the tab. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent—those below the median income level—now earn 13 percent of the income but pay just 3 percent of the taxes.

    1. Ralph Deeds profile image69
      Ralph Deedsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Well, we can't pay for the infrastructure and the government, etc., that corporations and richistanis rely on to make money by taxing people who are on welfare or subsistence wages, or Social Security. Income disparity has increased greatly in the past thirty years.

      1. paradigmsearch profile image60
        paradigmsearchposted 14 years agoin reply to this



        And that is the heart of the problem…

        We are indeed doing something wrong somehow/somewhere…

        Whatever it is, I guess we started doing it sometime within the last 20-40 years. I am not going to guess what that something is or how to fix it.

        Meanwhile, we now have a $T+ deficit every year

        PS I’m an Independent.smile

  3. secularist10 profile image62
    secularist10posted 14 years ago

    "Why not make every citizen pay a percentage according to what they make or have."

    We do, it's called a progressive income tax. The higher your income, the greater percentage of your income you pay to the government. However, this is true only up to a point.

    One of the great structural travesties of the American taxation system is that someone who makes $300,000 per year pays the same marginal tax rate as someone who makes $30 million per year! Despite the fact that their income is several orders of magnitude greater, they are still paying the same tax rate as someone much further down the totem pole.

    Moreover, since the richest Americans derive a much greater portion of their income and wealth from investments than less wealthy Americans do, they are subject to even LESS total tax burden (because, for example, the capital gains tax is only 15%). So overall, after loopholes, lower capital gains taxes, the ability to pay the best tax accountants and easier access to offshore bank accounts, etc, the super-rich wind up with a pretty sweet deal and it is the middle class and upper middle class (those are the ones who create most of the jobs) who really get hosed.

    In my view, the super-rich and uber-rich should be charged higher tax rates, and the abundance of loopholes in the tax code should be heavily pruned.

    Rochelle Frank indicated that "a big portion of the federal income tax burden is shouldered by a small group of the richest Americans"

    This is true. But guess what? It will always be the case, no matter what kind of tax system we have. Even in a pure flat tax system, the richest will always pay for the majority or vast majority of the government. This is because they have a greater total percentage of ALL income.

    Better to tie income tax burden more closely to income (i.e. the ability to pay taxes) than to push a greater tax burden onto the middle class and lower class people who really cannot afford it.

    Significant reform must be done in the area of small business and corporate taxes, as well.

    1. Pcunix profile image82
      Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Stop looking at it as the rich paying more. It is that those not so well off are allowed to pay less.

      1. secularist10 profile image62
        secularist10posted 14 years agoin reply to this

        Is the glass half-empty or half-full?

        Depends on where you are on the income totem pole.

        1. Pcunix profile image82
          Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Well, personally I've been up and I've  been down, but the reality always is that we need taxes to provide the society we want to live in.

          That's why I get so annoyed with Tea Party noise.

  4. ddsurfsca profile image70
    ddsurfscaposted 14 years ago

    From a few of the replies here, I think that some of you have either misunderstood what I meant or I said it wrong.  Let me clarify....

       I went to a financial advisor sometime ago, and he is the one who explained to me the financial mess we are in.  He is who told me that in the USA a small 1% of the population holds a vast 97% of the cash.  I am completely aware of the fact that our governament spends more than it gets, and that politicians do not control, the corporate america does.  I was merely asking some background on what makes the repulicans tick, because they sure do like to run there mouths, making sure that everyone is either on their side, or that I understand that they are right.  I have found that it is a rare thing to find a democrat that will pull out their soap box and begin a tirade on how and why they should rule.
       Also, I wanted to let it be known, that every now and again one person can make a difference.  I also believe that if we look back at history to predict the future, we are headed for a revolution for you cannot take away the last dollar of a poor man with a family to feed.  Oppression has been the thing that has been able to get the lazy and naive off their rearends, and make things change.  The rich, corporate america, and the government cannot continue to feed off of the meager tidbits the poverty stricken "middle class" is trying to pay for their homes with and feed the kids. 
       Anybody have a good suggestion for a home based business that makes millions of dollars while I go on vacation?  If I can start it with ten bucks, I am in.....HA

 
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