How is a flat tax unfair? I don't get it. Everyone is paying the same percentage of their income, so there should be no problem. I just don't get the argument at all. It's a level playing field. 

Thanks for the info about the United Way. I'll check that out next year. I wasn't aware they offered such services.

A flat tax is based on income.  The Fair Tax is based on consumption.  The difference is with a "flat tax" you are basically penalizing someone for making a good salary even if they choose to save their money rather than spend it.  It also only applies to people actually earning an income.

The Fair Tax on the other hand taxes people on what they spend, not what they earn.  It also applies to those not earning income.  Think the "underground economy" such as illegal aliens working for cash, prostitutes, drug dealers, etc.  Any time anyone buys something new they are taxed.  The rate would be the same for ALL people, not just those that actually earn an income.  Go buy a new car?  You get taxed X% whether it's a $20,000.00 car or a $100,000.00 car.

That's a very brief explanation of it and the basic idea of it.

How do you in any way, equate this with a penalty? It's not penalizing anyone if we all pay the same percentage. It's a level playing field. Everyone would be paying the same percentage, so there can't be any penalties.

Not everyone who doesn't earn an income is an illegal alien, a prostitute or a drug dealer. What about people who are legitimately disabled and can't work? What about injured war vets who come back from combat severely disabled or dealing with crippling PTSD? They barely have enough income to get by. I know a few. It's sad. They come back and are basically thrown away. One guy I know spends most of his income on the medication he needs that the VA won't fully cover.

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The main difference is rich people can dodge tax with loopholes and shift money to tax havens not available to your average PAYE worker. It's not remotely a level playing field. Everyone should be mad at this. Trump and the like can also afford to take the Tax department on in litegation so will push the envelope more anyway. Hello 70k on haircuts.

However, I kind of understand why you guys are so anti paying tax. Apart from a big military you don't get much for your money compared to other western nations with well funded healthcare, world class public transport etc.

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You will never mature as a citizen as long as you keep calling taxes penalties.
A penalty is something the government charges you with for your specific situation because you specifically did something wrong, like when I made a mistake on my taxes.
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A wealth tax is a penalty.  You are taxed because someone thinks that you have "too much".

Taxing a higher wage earner is a penalty because someone thinks that you earn "too much".

The death tax is a penalty because someone thinks that you saved "too much" to pass down to your heirs.

Those penalties are often justified by leftists like you because a person that has or earns over a certain amount is "too much" and "they don't need it".

If I worked and saved all of my life and earned say $20 million that I want to leave to my children.  Why is the government justified in taking almost half of that?  It's a penalty because I worked for and saved "too much".

When you finally mature you might realize that taxes have essentially become a penalty for quite a few people.  I personally earn a pretty good salary, have done so for a good portion of my life (after my military career).  I am penalized for what I earn every year and most times have to write a check for the government penalizing me more, yet my own children who earn less than me get a tax "refund" every year.

Taxes are a necessity, but when they are unfair (as the current system is) they become a penalty.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

Actually better for the economy taxing higher earners more rather than them sitting on lots of money. Not really an issue with lower earners as they spend what they get.

Not sure how $750 for Trump is a big penalty.

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I’m close to paying my house off. Perhaps after I do I sell my business and just sit On my [BLEEP] on unemployment. I think I can make ends meet.

See the problem there?

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I’m close to paying my house off. Perhaps after I do I sell my business and just sit On my [BLEEP] on unemployment. I think I can make ends meet.

See the problem there?

You probably wouldn't get it because you have your own business and actually contribute to economy.

Sent from my SM-T820 using Tapatalk

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I’m close to paying my house off.  Perhaps after I do I sell my business and just sit On my [BLEEP] on unemployment.   I think I can make ends meet.

See the problem there?

You probably wouldn't get it because you have your own business and actually contribute to economy.

Sent from my SM-T820 using Tapatalk

You’re probably right.  I’m sure there are other factors to my disadvantage if I tried that.  But I’m supposed to feel bad about that, or something.

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Dude I've not even raised kids and I know about what schools are teaching kids. I'm my county kids are being taught from a very early age some sort of emotional social learning (ESL) crap that is teaching them to make decisions based on emotions instead of facts or logic. I also just learned kids as young as elementary school age are being given questionnaires regarding sexual activity, suicide ideation and drug use. All of this leading up to a socialist mindset. 

I was actually going to  start a discussion about it posting some of the questions posed to elementary, middle and high school students and ask if anyone else has kids in schools where this is going  on. It's truly disturbing what kids here in small town NC are being taught, I can't imagine bigger cities. I had a hard time going to sleep that night.

Maybe it's because I live in Ohio and it's super conservative, but my sister is a teacher and I've seen and heard from my niece and nephew what they are being taught in school. If my sister or any of her kids' teachers gave them those kind of questionnaires or were teaching that kind of ideology, they'd be fired.

NC is mostly conservative voter-wise but somehow sees a lot of Democrat governors. Asheville is considered the east coast version of San Francisco. It's a weird state. Our local school board is in the hot seat for this information that is coming out. Like, people are freaking the freak out. And for good reason. But that's for another topic.

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You will never mature as a citizen as long as you keep calling taxes penalties.
A penalty is something the government charges you with for your specific situation because you specifically did something wrong, like when I made a mistake on my taxes.
...

A wealth tax is a penalty.  You are taxed because someone thinks that you have "too much".

Taxing a higher wage earner is a penalty because someone thinks that you earn "too much".

The death tax is a penalty because someone thinks that you saved "too much" to pass down to your heirs.

Those penalties are often justified by leftists like you because a person that has or earns over a certain amount is "too much" and "they don't need it".

If I worked and saved all of my life and earned say $20 million that I want to leave to my children.  Why is the government justified in taking almost half of that?  It's a penalty because I worked for and saved "too much".

When you finally mature you might realize that taxes have essentially become a penalty for quite a few people.  I personally earn a pretty good salary, have done so for a good portion of my life (after my military career).  I am penalized for what I earn every year and most times have to write a check for the government penalizing me more, yet my own children who earn less than me get a tax "refund" every year.

Taxes are a necessity, but when they are unfair (as the current system is) they become a penalty.

Allow me to add to this.  Due to prudent spending/saving and not living beyond our means my wife and paid off our house before we turned 40.  Because we were responsible we are not able to take standard deductions that most of you enjoy.  Ergo for being prudent and not accumulating debt we are penalized by an unjust tax system for being responsible human beings.

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Original Season Ticket Holder - Retired  1995 - 2020


At some point you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and live in what is happening.
 

I’m close to paying my house off.  Perhaps after I do I sell my business and just sit On my [BLEEP] on unemployment.   I think I can make ends meet.

See the problem there?

Sounds a bit depressing. Never known anyone on unemployment benefit to be having a great time of it.

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https://youtu.be/bXk3teJpzGU

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Dude I've not even raised kids and I know about what schools are teaching kids. I'm my county kids are being taught from a very early age some sort of emotional social learning (ESL) crap that is teaching them to make decisions based on emotions instead of facts or logic. I also just learned kids as young as elementary school age are being given questionnaires regarding sexual activity, suicide ideation and drug use. All of this leading up to a socialist mindset. 

I was actually going to  start a discussion about it posting some of the questions posed to elementary, middle and high school students and ask if anyone else has kids in schools where this is going  on. It's truly disturbing what kids here in small town NC are being taught, I can't imagine bigger cities. I had a hard time going to sleep that night.

I was born into a family of public educators, both administrators and teachers. I am around active teachers much of my time. None of them see what you describe happening in their schools.

If anything, my own school education was politicized towards conservative thought. We had to take Americanism vs. Communism as a Civics requirement to graduate high school. Two teachers taught the class, a 70s hippie who organized an annual folk festival, and a retired Marine drill sergeant. Do you reckon their curriculum was identical?

We're talking 2020, not the 70's. In the 80's we didn't have these kinds of questionnaires. In my county/state this began around 2015. And it's not curriculum with the questionnaires, it's something they give students once a semester or once a year and the questions are extremely invasive. They ask 10 different ways about the sex life of the student as well as drug use. And everyone is given the questions. Absolutely not necessary for schools to know. Period. 

I'll start a thread on it with the questions and you tell me if you would be okay with a public school asking your kid these things. 

The ESL learning is something else entirely but is being taught in schools in my county, possibly all over my state.

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I’m close to paying my house off.  Perhaps after I do I sell my business and just sit On my [BLEEP] on unemployment.   I think I can make ends meet.

See the problem there?

Sounds a bit depressing. Never known anyone on unemployment benefit to be having a great time of it.

You missed the point.  Shocker!

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https://youtu.be/bXk3teJpzGU

One of the last few funny skits SNL had.  Watching Christina Applegate and David Spade trying not to laugh while sitting on the couch made that one even funnier.

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Sounds a bit depressing. Never known anyone on unemployment benefit to be having a great time of it.

You missed the point.  Shocker!

Apologies hard to keep up with such an intellect! You should be more polite to us mortals. Or don't make such useless points.

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You missed the point.  Shocker!

Apologies hard to keep up with such an intellect! You should be more polite to us mortals. Or don't make such useless points.

The last line in the post you quoted said “see the problem there?”   So, if you’re not intelligent enough to figure it out you really shouldn’t be questioning others intellect. Carry on with your [BLEEP].

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You missed the point.  Shocker!

Apologies hard to keep up with such an intellect! You should be more polite to us mortals. Or don't make such useless points.

You have become very mean lately. Do we need to rebalance your meds?

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You know what?  Your stupidity is like a Black hole and I can’t get out of it.  I’ll spell it out.  If I paid my house off and went on unemployment and receive a check for 650 a week, I’d have zero house payments and income equivalent to someone making 40k a year before taxes taken out.  I think I can make that happen.  But I obviously wouldn’t do that because I enjoy not living paycheck to paycheck,  being able to enjoy the fruits of my labor and providing a decent life for my child.

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You know what?  Your stupidity is like a Black hole and I can’t get out of it.  I’ll spell it out.  If I paid my house off and went on unemployment and receive a check for 650 a week, I’d have zero house payments and income equivalent to someone making 40k a year before taxes taken out.  I think I can make that happen.  But I obviously wouldn’t do that because I enjoy not living paycheck to paycheck,  being able to enjoy the fruits of my labor and providing a decent life for my child.

What is the name of your lawn company if you can disclose that? 100k annual income after payroll and expenses is solid.

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You know what?  Your stupidity is like a Black hole and I can’t get out of it.  I’ll spell it out.  If I paid my house off and went on unemployment and receive a check for 650 a week, I’d have zero house payments and income equivalent to someone making 40k a year before taxes taken out.  I think I can make that happen.  But I obviously wouldn’t do that because I enjoy not living paycheck to paycheck,  being able to enjoy the fruits of my labor and providing a decent life for my child.

What is the name of your lawn company if you can disclose that? 100k annual income after payroll and expenses is solid.

Will not disclose, but thank you.  

But tbh, I’m not even one of the “big” companies.  My mentor is billing out 60k a month with 5 crews. What I’m doing is not anything special.  You get out of it what you put in.  Most get into it and decide it’s too hard or go back to the corporate world.  Most of your long term guys would be about on par with 
me.  Most don’t realize it but there really is a good bit to be made if willing to put up with the public and with the work.  Your owners make the majority of the money(of course) the employees not as much.  But I do try to pay on the higher end.  Need to keep the good guys.

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You know what?  Your stupidity is like a Black hole and I can’t get out of it.  I’ll spell it out.  If I paid my house off and went on unemployment and receive a check for 650 a week, I’d have zero house payments and income equivalent to someone making 40k a year before taxes taken out.  I think I can make that happen.  But I obviously wouldn’t do that because I enjoy not living paycheck to paycheck,  being able to enjoy the fruits of my labor and providing a decent life for my child.

Is unemployment 650 a week or you adding some kind of housing benefits you wouldn't be able to obtain? I have no idea on the rates. Would assume it is much less than that or is that a temporary coronavirus thing?

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