Reply #46: Here's one for you

[stopbush]

Would you prefer to make the national average of $40k a year and pay a flat tax of 10%, or would you prefer to make a million dollars a year and pay a 90% progressive tax?

In the first instance, you're going to pay $4k a year and be left with $36k. In the second, you're going to pay $900,000 but be left with $100k. Do you know many average Americans who wouldn't opt for case 2 if they had a choice?

Repigs always use the "percentage of income" argument when discussing taxes, as in "why should the well-off pay a larger percentage of their income as taxes than those low-earning lucky duckies?" Why do you think Steve Forbes loves the flat tax second only to no tax? And, of course, user taxes and sales taxes aren't calculated into the repig tax burden.

But the rich are always better off. While most homeowners need to finance their homes for 30 years, the super rich can just pay cash and skip all of those inconvenient interest payments. After 30 years of interest and principal, Joe Average has given his lender about $900,000 for that $300,000 home that he "bought" 30 years before. And so it goes with other big ticket items like cars and appliances (last I looked, the same-model car or washing machine cost roughly the same on skid row as it did on Rodeo Drive) - the rich pay cash while the middle-class make a down payment and finance the rest at anywhere from 6% (car loan) to 21% (credit card).

It's rigged, I tells ya, rigged!