I think that a 4% hit would be a lot for people making significantly less money.
The utility of each dollar drops the more you have. $1000 would be a massive amount of money to someone making minimum wage. $10000 in a single check might seem like a life changing amount of money for some people. At higher levels of wealth and income, those values would be far less significant. If you were to raise or reduce the salary of a typical Bay Area software developer by $1000, for instance, they probably wouldn’t even notice. And they’re not making $1M per year, either.
The reason we have things like a progressive income is that we can tax someone making $1M per year an extra $40k - as much or more than many individuals make - and it’s not going to seriously affect their spending or saving habits. If we tax someone making $50k an extra $2k, they would feel it.
Americans are not under taxed, our federal government has plenty of money for whatever social programs it might want to provide. Our money is spent instead on a bloated military and pointless pet projects. How many health insurance plans could you buy for the price of one submarine or drone?
Healthcare is privately bought and one of the things I’d like to shift to taxes.
It’s so much worse than just paying more than other countries - we leave something like 30% total comp on the table. Most people would literally make more money paying health care with taxes.
I’m not talking about salary. I’m talking about corporate profits. If you can’t envision that then I feel sorry for you. We already have 501c hospitals.
I think that a 4% hit would be a lot for people making significantly less money.
The utility of each dollar drops the more you have. $1000 would be a massive amount of money to someone making minimum wage. $10000 in a single check might seem like a life changing amount of money for some people. At higher levels of wealth and income, those values would be far less significant. If you were to raise or reduce the salary of a typical Bay Area software developer by $1000, for instance, they probably wouldn’t even notice. And they’re not making $1M per year, either.
The reason we have things like a progressive income is that we can tax someone making $1M per year an extra $40k - as much or more than many individuals make - and it’s not going to seriously affect their spending or saving habits. If we tax someone making $50k an extra $2k, they would feel it.
I’m aware, but Americans are also dramatically under-taxed, and as a result most of our support structures are dramatically underfunded.
50k is below the third quintile so wouldn’t really be touched. Third quintiles starts at 61k.
Americans are not under taxed, our federal government has plenty of money for whatever social programs it might want to provide. Our money is spent instead on a bloated military and pointless pet projects. How many health insurance plans could you buy for the price of one submarine or drone?
We are very under-taxed as well as wasting money at most levels of government.
We have enough to pay for all the social programs you could ever want, how is that “under taxed”?
No we don’t.
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Healthcare is privately bought and one of the things I’d like to shift to taxes.
It’s so much worse than just paying more than other countries - we leave something like 30% total comp on the table. Most people would literally make more money paying health care with taxes.
Take it a step further and outlaw profiting off the sick and the problem takes care of itself.
The profit motive is the enemy of the people. It’s institutionalized greed and disgusting behavior that we reward.
“profiting off the sick” doesn’t make any sense. So we should ban doctors because they get paid? No medical device companies should exist?
Not sure I can support that concept.
I’m not talking about salary. I’m talking about corporate profits. If you can’t envision that then I feel sorry for you. We already have 501c hospitals.
What do you mean by “corporate profits?” Who is allowed to profit vs not?
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