I don't get right-wing "logic" regarding the richest Americans...

[YoungDemCA]

Are we supposed to feel sorry for them, that the tax code is supposedly so punitive that the richest Americans shelter, on average, $3 trillion a year via tax avoidance?

Are we supposed to shed tears for the corporate executives that axe half their workforce over lunch, and then, when the executive team "resigns", get rewarded multimillion dollar severance packages?

Are we honestly supposed to believe those talking points, such as that "$250k is barely middle class in Manhattan!"?

A friend of mine just recently summed it up this way:

"You know, I think the United States might be one of the only nations in the history of our world where the wealthy have the gall to say that they're the ones being oppressed."

Of course, the more power a small group of people has, the better able it is to protest its perceived discrimination.....

[HughBeaumont]

1. We're definitely one of the few nations where the haves and the have mores are jealous of our poor.

Wrap around that . . . a little less than half the country has the audacity to be jealous of the supposed "lucky duckies". In my work room alone, I'm looking at three of them. On CNBC, they're the guests AND the hosts.

If they even had a look at how your average person on public assistance actually lives, they'd be singing a new tune.

[Flashmann]

2. I don't get right-wing "logic" regarding the richest Americans

I suspect many RWers don't get it any better than you or I do.....They merely parrot what their manipulators TELL them to parrot,then pretend it's reasonable.....

[hamsterjill]

3. I don't get the Right Wing Idiots who are poor who go along with this!

I see this defended (i.e., the richer paying lower tax rates) all the time! Why is that okay to these people? Why is it okay to the poor Republicans that the rich Republicans pay less tax?

I have NEVER figured that part out, except to look at the mentality of the poor Republicans, and the audacity of the rich ones.

[deutsey]

6. Part of it is some of these people actually believe they're going to be rich some day

and they want the lower taxes when they do.

I actually had someone from a background similar to mine (lower working class) tell me that.

[JHB]

4. It's for obfuscation of any other option...

...as long as that's accomplished, they don't particularly give a damn what you believe.

And this looks like a good time to thump a drum of mine:

In 1955 there were 24 income tax brackets. Adjusting for inflation:
16 brackets affected incomes above the equivalent of $250,000;
11 of those affected incomes above the equivalent of $500,000;
The top bracket kicked in on incomes over the equivalent of $3.3 million.

And that's just talking about where one income level was treated differently than another, without even mentioning what the rates were on those brackets.

Yet somehow we still had rich people, and people who became rich.

[spooky3]

5. The group that puzzles me most is the over-65 population.

This group disproportionately votes for Republicans. Their average annual income is about $30K

http://www.financialfreedomadvantage.com/average-retirement-income.html

and something like 2/3 of them depend primarily on Social Security and Medicare for their retirement income and health care needs. Yes, some of them own paid for houses but you can't eat equity, and houses require maintenance. Some have other assets. But even taking that into account, why do they continually vote against their own best interests as well as the best interests of others?

[YoungDemCA]

8. I suspect many of them feel that they are "stakeholders" or "taxpayers"...

...who earned[/i ]everything they have, but somehow the "others" (ie not them or people like them) didn't earn their benefits.

Perhaps it has to do with the older white American population, on average, generally being more right-wing/conservative overall, especially when it comes to issues of race, gender roles, cultural norms, and religious beliefs. Some of them pine for the "good old days" of the 40s or 50s or even the 80s (Reagan era), selectively forgetting or ignoring the bad parts of those decades.

Maybe it has to do with the concentration of older white people in more conservative areas of the country, like the South or parts of the Midwest. Who knows?

[spooky3]

10. I agree. I wish the Dems would study this

Group and find a way to change their voting patterns. I suspect that right-leaning religious institutions play a role for this group in particular.

[JaneyVee]

7. Rich people trying to convince stupid people that poor people are partying & living it up on welfare

[ddtully]

9. Let's do away with ALL the whining with a flat tax

in the form of a flat Value Added Tax on all products sold with the exception of food, energy and healthcare. A flat tax of say 30% on everything and do away with this convoluted tax code where 80% of the country requires a CPA just to file their taxes.

No matter what the rate on the rich is, for some it will never be enough, for others it will always be too much. The fact is that there isn't enough tax revenue out there to pay for the government's spending problem.

[librabear]

11. On the flat tax....

There's plenty of kinds of taxes. I actually think a flat tax is a great idea, but it will destroy the middle class unless you want to start making a bunch of exemptions, which makes it no longer a flat tax. For a person making up to $250k/year a 30% tax would be a HUGE tax increase.

Originally we didn't tax income at all and only taxes property. Property taxes are much more progressive than income taxes anyway.