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Author Topic: One person's ideas on taxes  (Read 7822 times)

mkdutchman

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One person's ideas on taxes
« on: February 14, 2008, 01:05:34 PM »
I am well aware that some things funny to me are not funny to others, and vice versa........but FWIW I find this guy's view on the tax rebates quite hilarious......

http://www.citizenlink.org/Stoplight/A000006488.cfm
« Last Edit: February 14, 2008, 01:19:08 PM by mkdutchman »

mike90045

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2008, 03:51:10 PM »
In Amerika, we have a "voluntary" income tax.  Or else you go to jail.

Stan

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2008, 04:50:30 PM »
Gee, I guess in Canada we have a better system.  If you are really really rich, or a large corporation, you have any number of ways you can get out of paying income taxes!  One of them is to move all your money to Bermuda!  Several of our richest families have done that without any penalty whatsoever!
Stan

dpollo

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2008, 08:46:28 PM »
Don't you just love it when they wrap themselves in the flag. Like " Paul Who?",  you know, the lame duck prime minister who took his whole shipping empire offshore. Literally Figuratively and Financially.

I endured an audit some years ago because, they said, I had submitted a "pledge form" instead of a legitimate charitable donation receipt,( in the amount of $38). Final result : they found I was due $800 more than I had asked for as a refund. Net loss to the treasury, about $762 plus the wages of the lunatic who could not distinguish a pledge form from a receipt. No wonder the country is broke.

SCOTT

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2008, 09:04:42 PM »
here is a different way to look at an age old argument:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and 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 would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what th ey decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on e day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers?How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They 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 each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar 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, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink 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. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? 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 the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough mon ey between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our 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 anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where t he atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

Scott

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biobill

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #5 on: February 14, 2008, 09:29:37 PM »
Scott,
  OK, I think I got it.....but how come I still have to file when I haven't been drinking? ;D

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Stan

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #6 on: February 14, 2008, 09:39:11 PM »
Scott, I already read that one when my son (who makes 3 times more than I ever did) sent it to me.  I'll tell you the same thing I told him, that's cow logic.
It goes like this....all cows have 4 legs....all cows are animals....that means everything with 4 legs is a cow.

There are many many things wrong with that lame argument that any student in a first year philosophy course could tear apart easily.  The one I like best is the argument that the 9th and 10th man are already investing most of their money in Grand Cayman.  The second argument is that the 8th, 9th and 10th man are already contributing large amounts to the ruling party and getting huge tax concessions.

The only way taxation will ever be "fair" is following Peter Pocklington's suggestion of straight across 20% taxation for everybody except legitimately disabled people with no deductions for anything.

There's a rule often quoted in statistics circles that if a government taxes more than 20% on anybody, the cost of hunting down,  regulating, and prosecuting those who cheat is more than the benefit of taxing above the 20% ceiling.
Stan

SCOTT

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2008, 12:21:47 AM »


.....There are many many things wrong with that lame argument that any student in a first year philosophy course could tear apart easily....

This is where we differ, I bellieve that tax policy is the realm of economists, not philosophers.



Scott
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SCOTT

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #8 on: February 15, 2008, 12:52:56 AM »
Biobill
The net meteing is going pretty good so far.  By tomorrow morning I will have put about 115 hours on the engine this week running on heated vegi oil.  If all goes well  I will pull the head at 500 hrs and have a look.  I will post more details in the comming weeks in another thread about extended run times.

Scott
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rbodell

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #9 on: February 15, 2008, 02:00:14 AM »
here is a different way to look at an age old argument:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and 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:

Taxes are funny, I sold some Florida realestate on the last day of the land boom after raising in value 30% a year for several years. I got enough to retire on. I paid $150 in taxes.

This year I will pay about the same but with that incentive for the economy, I will end up with a 300 dollar refund.

Sorry about the economy, but I won't be spending it, I will be putting it in the bank towards the next two years taxes.
The shear depth of my shallowness is perplexing yet morbidly interesting. Bob 2007

Stan

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #10 on: February 15, 2008, 02:52:47 AM »
Sorry Scott...You've been taken!  About 2 min work researching this supposed writing by this professor of Economics reveals this.


 "The most recent version that has circulated on the Internet attributes it to David R. Kamerschen, a professor of Economics at the University of Georgia.
On his web site, however, he denies that he wrote it and says he doesn't know who did.
How his name got attached to it, he does not know."

Stan

SCOTT

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #11 on: February 15, 2008, 03:13:11 AM »

For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.




Scott
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Stan

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #12 on: February 15, 2008, 04:29:37 AM »
Scott...That was one of the first clues to the fact that a genuine professor had NOT written that drivel.  Can you imagine how long any educator would last in his/her job if they stood up in front of a bunch of students and said "For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible."

I'd be the first to say " Sorry Mr. Proff....if you put something out there that can't be explained, you're probably a preacher or a witch doctor and I don't want to listen to you".

Stan

lowspeedlife

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #13 on: February 17, 2008, 04:52:04 PM »
This is all very humorous untill you find out the "stimulis package" is going to cost the fed (you change fed to taxpayers) about 140 billion dollars, most of which will end up in china. but what is really funny is we are giving the Mexicain govt. about 160 billion to secure thier southern border because they dont want those central americans coming into thier country. HAHAHA. (laughing all the way to H&R Block)
                                      scott r.
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sid

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Re: One person's ideas on taxes
« Reply #14 on: February 17, 2008, 09:48:28 PM »
I would never tell you not to go to H and R block or any other tax prepairer///one of the things that i hear on a daily basis is do your own taxes..that comes from the wife// a long term employee of IRS//most of her problems comes from other people who prepair your taxes//it is your money// learn how to do it// you will do a better job than some one else// it seems complicated at first but you can do it///one thing about the IRS/ the tax code is over 16000 pages long///no one understands the whole program/ people are trained in parts of it/ the bad part is every thing can have 2 or 3 different answers. the one you pick will always be wrong///by being an employee we have to send in $2-3000 extra just in case we make a mistake/// the employee are held at a standard where you can not make a mistake//of course, everyone will make mistake.most of the we get most of the money back and take a vacation with it///sid
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