Why is it that it seems only the rich bitch about taxes

[maxpower]

All taxes except income and property taxes have a higher impact on the middle and lower class i.e. sales tax, driver's license fees, gasoline tax..... you get the idea. These taxes hit the rich a lot less than the rest of us, yet they bitch more. I don't get it.

[TheCoxwain]

1. They pay more ( in dollar terms) ... on the other hand - most of the income is cap gains - they

actually pay less in percentage terms than the average factory worker

[maxpower]

2. That is my point

Thanks for articulating it better.

[PhiloPublius]

12. Do they really?

Why are they always saying that they pay so much then? I know that in my tax bracket I get it all back except SS and FICA and whatnot.

[DireStrike]

28. Probably because they aren't completely wiped out from working

And can find nothing else to do with themselves besides whine.

[MajorChode]

31. Because the ponderous drug addict radio loudmouth has them convinced...

that taxes should be equal in dollar amount to be "fair."

[Doctor_J]

35. Yes. Winger like to point out that

"20% of Americans pay 50% of the taxes". The reason is that they make 80% of the money and own 90% of the wealth.

[lib_wit_it]

48. Is that figure accurate? Does that include business taxes?

[Progressive_In_NC]

34. not on the high end, they don't

These numbers are for Married Filing Jointly

Just in federal taxes if you made an adjusted gross income of $500,000 (actually made close to $600,000) last year your federal tax bill from the tax tables would be:

$100,894.50 + 35% of the amount over $372,950.

So the couple making adjusted gross income (after standard deductions for house and kids and charity) of 500K a year has an immediate tax liability of $145,362.00. Now that in and of itself is a LOT of money.

When you figure that someone making adjusted gross income of $50,000.00 (actually made roughly $65,000) would owe:

$1,670 + 15% of the amount over $16,700 or $6,665.00.


$145,362.00 > $6,665.00

That is why they moan and complain. The sheer numbers are too much for the human mind to put their head around in most cases.

The person at the high end paid 24% of their income in taxes roughly after deductions. The person on the low end paid 9% in federal taxes.

The person on the high end is still a MILLION times better off, but we've been taught to equivocate in this country. Any way you slice it, the person on the high end paid more than the person in next to low end of the tax scale whether it be in amount or percentage of their pay.

[Mz Pip]

3. I'm not convinced that they do

A lot of the people who bitch about taxes on the wealthy are people who wish they were wealthy, who think they might someday be wealthy and therefore must protect the wealth that they do not yet have. These people want to be rich so they do quite a bit of projecting how they think really rich people must feel

Mz Pip

[maxpower]

4. Good point

I guess my perception seems to be a bit off

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. Like the unemployed Joe the Plumber who fantasized about owning

his own million dollar plumbing company - and a fantasy it has remained.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

20. That's my take on it.

I doubt any of those townhall clowns are "rich" -- they're wannabes.

[JerseygirlCT]

30. I agree

most of the people I know who are quite wealthy have never, in my hearing anyway, expressed that concern.

Lots of people who would like to be in their shoes do, however - even when raising taxes a bit on the highest levels would benefit them.

[maxsolomon]

5. i hear a lot of bitching from the militia right

it seems like ANY taxes are unacceptable to them. raising taxes on the wealthy is like raising their taxes bcuz they might hit the powerball.

[Journeyman]

6. The richest person I know, one of my clients, has inherited wealth. . .

worth hundreds of millions and believes the rich don't pay enough in taxes. But then, this person is a committed liberal, supports a number of progressive causes and candidates, and is quite outspoken in their disdain for much of what the "rich" advocate.

[stray cat]

7. If they start taxing everyones health insurance plan from work equally

you will hear complaints from everyone. If you and I get taxed at the same rate as wealthier individuals to cover health care reform - you will hear complaints from everyone. Most people don't realize health care is expensive and no one is signed up to pay for you and I besides you and I.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. Partially that is due to the poor having no effective voice

[Mariana]

9. They truly believe that THEY'RE the only ones paying taxes.

They don't think beyond federal income tax and maybe state income tax. Never mind the hundreds of other taxes that everybody has to pay at the same rate, and they don't think about the cap on SS tax, and it doesn't occur to them that everyone pays the same fees for services, licensing, and so on. They pick the ONE relatively progressive tax we have in this country and then squawk that they're being gouged.

[DBoon]

10. the necessities of life are cheap to the rich

when food, housing, transportation, etc. are easily affordable then it becomes easier to complain about other costs.

When paying the rent is a struggle, complaining about income taxes is a luxury

[EC]

13. What really gets me is that most of these rich bastards

don't even know how much money they have...they can estimate within a couple $100,000. but they don't know...so how in the world can they even miss any of their money if they don't know how much they have to begin with?

[lib_wit_it]

14. Because they are perverted by their love for money. They completely lose perspective on life as we

know it. They think they are better than those less fortunate. Some even think they were chosen by god to be reich (typo I'll let stand) and powerful. The richer and more powerful, the more god loves them.

The wealthiest person I know personally is a dickhead Major League Baseball pitcher who is the epitome of that attitude. His wife, my cousin, almost immediately devolved into a more RW, stupid, selfish bitch. When her egomaniacal husband got his first huge-money contract, she complained, "Well, it's not as much as people think. You know, he has to buy his own uniforms!"

I kid you not.

Poor dear. I mean, the rest of us all get *our* work clothes for free.

I admire the French.

[X_Digger]

15. Everybody bitches..

.. but when the rich bitch, more people listen :)

[Juche]

16. Middle class people bitch about taxes all the time

They have been convinced by conservative media outlets that their money is being taken away and given to blacks, illegal immigrants and people who make bad decisions.

[Soylent Brice]

17. GREED. to be rich is to never be rich enough.

[applegrove]

18. Cause some of the rich think their **** doesn't stink. They actually believe

they are superior to the "others". The others being the middle class and the poor. At least that is my impression on how it works in the USA. The rich in Canada are quite different IMO.

[maxpower]

19. The ones that piss me off the most

Are the trust fund rich. Most have the false sense of accomplishment. Sickening.

[applegrove]

43. I hate the rich people who have funded the religeous right and the wingnuts.

They want the poor and the middle class to vote against their own best interest. And it sometimes works.

[Fumesucker]

21. I read a quote once and haven't been able to find it again..

"A full wallet often complains more loudly than an empty belly".

I think that pretty much puts the finger right on the phenomenon of which you speak.

[paulsby]

22. you are kidding me right?

everybody i know bitches about taxes, and few are rich.

heck, middle class bitching about taxes is practically a national pastime.

[sweetpotato]

23. Because they don't want ANY of THEIR money to support anyone else

They don't want to use their "hard-earned" money to subsidize ANYTHING for ANYONE.

Not a nickel.

They honestly feel that they have made theirs, so if you want some, you go and get your own. They want to keep everything they have and help only those that they feel are worthy of their munificence.

That's why they will give to churches or charities of their choosing. They feel that that is ENOUGH giving to the masses.

They want to CHOOSE who gets what they give.

And they only want to help those that look like themselves, or whatever charity is "in" at the moment.

Paying taxes is so bourgeois.

Its racism, class-ism, probably some sexism, too - can't help those lazy welfare moms, yanno.

[hack89]

24. You need to hang around my friends

not a rich man among them, good democrats, and absolutely furious as to how the state pisses away our taxes.

[hack89]

25. You need to hang around my friends

not a rich man among them, good democrats, and absolutely furious as to how the state pisses away our taxes.

[Doctor_J]

26. The rich bitch about everything in America

That's the weirdest thing about my country. Every country on Earth has rich & poor & in between. The US is the only one where the ones with the most spend the most complain constantly about how bad they have it.

[Echo In Light]

27. The few well-to-do couples we know are ALWAYS 1st to complain about $

[slampoet]

29. The Rich are Not as PATRIOTIC as everyone else. They don't love America like regular people do.

They don't vacation here. They put their money overseas at a moment's notice and retire there too.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

38. You're right. Nobody should ever leave America for any reason.

Especially not the rich. Because, um... Sorry, what the fuck are you talking gibberish about?

[slampoet]

40. You were so Busy Constructing that Straw Man that you don't even know what i was saying.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

41. What ARE you saying? n/t

[slampoet]

42. I don't have time to teach you remedial forensics.

I guess you don't have Google on your ISP.

[adamuu]

32. Kind of a silly question, isn't it? n/t

[unblock]

33. they own the microphones.

not to mention the fact that they are mostly bitter, greedy, selfish fucks whose family trait of complaining about how much THEY are paying has a lot to do with how they got to be so rich in the first place.

[mainer]

36. The truly rich inherited their wealth -- and mostly pay capital gains

so they aren't the ones bitching.

The ones bitching are those who are actually working for a living.

[Doctor_J]

39. The ones who inherited their wealth bitch constantly

case in point: GWB has never made an honest dollar in his life.

[Lorien]

46. I've been well off. I worked hard then, but I work just as hard now or harder

for much less money. There is no excuse for their selfishness and anger over their own good fortune.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

37. In my experience most Americans bitch about taxes, regardless of income.

And contrary to popular belief, the middle class in this country isn't overtaxed. They're just getting lousy services for their money.

[DFW]

44. How much do you have to have before your are "rich?"

A friend of mine back in Texas has a net worth of about $25 million, none of it inherited. He is
part owner of a successful business. He's just a guy who had some ideas a few decades ago that clicked.

He has set up most of it in a charitable foundation, has a will leaving his wife and two kids about+
a million each (minus inheritance taxes) in case of his death (he is 57, as am I, and I am not talking
about myself). He contributes to Democratic candidates, environmental causes, health initiatives, local
charities, etc etc. He never bitches about taxes, figures he has plenty left over even after paying them.

Is he rich? He sure isn't evil. He's one of the good guys. He was an early supporter of Howard Dean back
in 2002, back when, outside of Vermont, Howard was "Howard Who?"

Of course, if you have $25 million left over after paying all your taxes, you shouldn't have a lot to
bitch about anyway. My friend doesn't. Maybe some of you know people with that kind of money who are
Scrooge clones, but not all people are, not even in Texas.

[Lorien]

45. A doctor I was seeing said that every April the rich would come to her

in droves with anxiety and anger issues over taxes. I could never figure it out either. I made a lot of money for a while, and I remember one year when I wrote a check to the IRS for $37,000 (more than I make per year now). I was really proud to write that check because I had the money, and it was the result of a really good year. What on earth was there to complain about? I figured that I owed the government because the opportunities to do that well may not exist in other countries. Why is this so hard for others to grasp?

[JI7]

47. it's not only the rich, in fact it's usually the non wealthy who bitch about it the most