The reason efficiency is good is because it goes hand in hand with transparency. For example, a common tactic is to tax shit people don’t give a damn about, like tobacco products. Nobody gives a damn if cigarette smokers have to pay more for cigarettes. If you stuck with something like a flat tax however, anytime you raised taxes you’d have to justify it for everyone, and people would more closely scrutinize how money is spent. I mean, its no secret there’s tons of taxpayer money being wasted all the time. But nobody cares. The government gets away with it.
Also, as for taxing rich people … The rub is rich people have ways around paying taxes. Its an ever increasing arms race. They created the AMT because rich people and corporations found ways to dodge, and yet the rich and the corporations continue to hire smarter accountants. It just makes the bureaucracy an even larger nightmare. Then you’ve got people that aren’t actually rich, but just have a high income. They’re already paying a lot for private school education for their kids, property tax, debts from whatever expensive law school/med school they went to, and income tax, and since most don’t have the kind of investment options that actual rich people have to dodge taxes, they are the ones shouldering the most burden. Its not exactly fair.
I hate poutine cheese curds. Them shit suck. I’ll just take the normal gravy plz. And I see that restaurant swaggerjacking every nationality’s food to make that shit better. Don’t front.
the main way rich people got around paying taxes is by getting poor idiots to push for tax cuts. the best way i’ve heard of getting rid of loopholes is to do away with charity tax write offs. the idea that giving money to some bullshit charity is just as good as giving it to the government is ridiculous considering the gov helps and is responsible for way more people.
The best was when Michael Moore was like “I love tax cuts, I am rich, but you non rich people should hate this. You are being super dumb” on some talk show.
Oh dumb people. “I HATE PAYING TAXES, I WANT MY EXTRA 60 DOLLARS EVERY WEEK BUT HATE ROADS, MAIL, SCHOOL, ETC ETC”
For reals. I became a CPA after taking tax courses in college cuz I wanted to help people. But after four years of this, I’m fed up with the bullshit and looking for a career change. Too many of my clients are hard working professionals or self employed who get raped by taxes, and it kills me to tell them what they have to pay. The best advice I could give them (but ethically can’t) is to cheat, but I don’t get paid enough to be their scapegoat. But really, it’s pretty easy to avoid paying taxes if you know the system and are in the right type of business. Corporations have lobbyists to make their shit legal because they are regulated by auditors. The little guy isn’t, so he can get away with a lot up to a certain point.
Spoiler
rant: I don’t like that people say there are tax loopholes. Loopholes are more like glitches in a game and unintended by the law makers (like having your children filing separately to get refundable credits). The stuff big corps do that people get mad at IS the system, so it’s not really a loophole imo. Just picking a broken character lol. But really, what else are corporations and the rich going to do with their money except throw it at lobbyist to try and reduce their taxes, which were arbitrarily placed on them in the first place? Like I said, small business cheat to maximize their profit. When you get big enough, you just make your cheating legal. I can’t hate.
A big issue in this country, one that will never change, is that money for lower and middle class people is a means to an end. You use it to get your house, your car, buy a nice TV, get married, etc. For the rich and ultra rich money is a tool to get more money. Money works very differently at certain levels of attainment.
Also, the thing that kills me is that republicans have some how managed to get poor people to vote against their own self interests. It’s really quite fucking amazing.
I’ve had Bboy Underground by Digikid84 stuck in my head all fucking day. I got an album on iTunes called French Attack for $5. 16 tracks, and 15 were new to me. Some good house on there. Some misses, too.
check out some of the random kinds of poutine they had though. Its a poutine only restaurant, but they have variety. And poutine cheese curds are the best part, when they get all melted and mmmmmmm fuckers im hungry for poutine.
rich white people have been convincing poor white people to do their bidding since the civil war and probably before. plantation owners were like 10% of the southern population and were generally disliked by the poorer whites, but when times got rough they knew they could jedi mind trick them with the race card…same way the southern democrats stayed in power down there for the better part of the 20th century…and now the republicans are doing the same thing, except now instead of rich land owners, it’s just rich people and in addition to black/white racism, they’re using religion and “morals”.
I don’t mind people eating it. I would actually even love to try some of it. But, could they just PLEASE change the name of it?
Also, why didn’t we hear about this on SRK? I never knew Grizzlies and Polar bears started mating and bearing hybrid non-sterile young! A full-grown one of those would be a massive eating machine!
Yeah for the record I think trickle down economics / supply side economics is dumb. People who believe that have been drinking too much Koolaid and it is amazing the Republicans can get poor people to buy into it. Nothing trickles down. The Republican constituents are too busy bible thumping to notice though.
I’m just saying I disagree with the current tax system, which grows more and more Byzantine with each passing year. I would strongly favor a flat tax system. Since that would be too radical, I also favor a system where tax deductions are completely eliminated, including the mortgage insurance deduction. If I recall correctly, Canada does not have such a deduction, so home buyers are/were a helluva lot more careful about purchasing a home. It just encourages responsible financial behavior. Rich people will still make purchases on expensive goods, but they won’t be able to deduct them, so they’ll basically be taxed more, but on consumption. I do not believe rich people should be punished for making money. Many of them, minus the people on Wall Street, are incredibly hard working individuals. Consumption is what should be taxed, not income. Now that might tank the economy in the short term, but debt based consumption spending was never a long term viable backbone of the economy. Trying to reinflate bubbles with this stimulus isn’t going to solve anything.