Who has the money in the U.S.A...

[Heracles 417]

The tax system is a progressive tax with the wealthy contribute a huge proportion of revenue with nothing from the bottom 50%.

We could increase increase our high corporate taxes and strangle businesses further but I'd sooner have a functioning economy.

If you think your life will improve only after soaking the rich, I guess it has some merit. The reality is the government is growing as the expense of the private sector so you should be elated with our present state of affairs.

Exactly how do intend to get the wealthy's money through an income tax? It taxes income not accumulated wealth.

First off, the wealthy need to start paying a fair wage. It's simply not acceptable that someone working full time has to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. As I have said before, what sort of a person defends the wealthy getting wealthier, yet doesn't give a ####### about where they or people like themselves stand? Idiots, that is who.

What it comes down to is this, the wealthy look out for their own azz, so why shouldn't the 80% do the same? You guys tend to turn this into benefits and free stuff, however, what about working class people who are getting the short end of the stick? All while the wealthy turn the country back into a 2nd world country; where there is a huge divide between the mega rich and dirt poor.

You guys will hate on the poor and section 8 folks, call them lazy leaching bums, but turn a blind eye to how little the wealthy actually do to earn billions. You guys are being played like fools but don't even know it or see it. At least Canadians and Australians have smartened up and demanded to be paid a fair wage, rather than live in squalor and in shitty has-been run-down towns and cities.

[Heracles 417]

200K is barely middle class if you're a couple with a child.

True, yet less than 2.7% of American households earn that.

In fact, the National Median household income in the United States is $44,389. Now contrast this to Aust, where the average income per person is $53K.

[^_^ 5,021]

True, yet less than 2.7% of American households earn that.

In fact, the National Median household income in the United States is $44,389. Now contrast this to Aust, where the average income per person is $53K.

Those statistics are meaningless unless you control for location.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

If I was the dictator of USA, I would extend Bush's tax cuts across the board with a few tweaks on the lower end and then add a whole new tier at 50% for 1mil+. Then I would cut corp. tax by 1/5 or so.

[Ban Hammer 13,457]

200K is barely middle class if you're a couple with a child.

maybe in jersey.

[^_^ 5,021]

maybe in jersey.

thus my subsequent comment about the need to control for location.

if expressed in terms of the amount of variation in costs of living, australia is likely to be more comparable to a single american metropolitan area and not to the nation as a whole.

[Ban Hammer 13,457]

thus my subsequent comment about the need to control for location.

if expressed in terms of the amount of variation in costs of living, australia is likely to be more comparable to a single american metropolitan area and not to the nation as a whole.

that is why that previous citation was called a median.....

around here, 200k a year makes you rich!

Edited August 6, 2010 by charles!

[^_^ 5,021]

that is why that previous citation was called a median.....

around here, 200k a year makes you rich!

when your sample size is as large as the US and your standard deviations are as large as they are here, sure you can produce a median (and a mean and a mode etc) but how useful are those metrics, really? i'd much rather see a control based on actual cost of living (which ties in to location).

some of the relo calculators online purport to do that but i'm not convinced that their methodologies are all that sound.

[DEDixon 39]

True, yet less than 2.7% of American households earn that.

In fact, the National Median household income in the United States is $44,389. Now contrast this to Aust, where the average income per person is $53K.

yeah, and they are supposed to save for retirement and save for their kids education all the while supposed to enjoy yearly family vacation. hell, just so we can pay baseball players 100 million, when a family of four goes to just 1 game, it is a major dent in 44,349 dollars. concerts these days are priced such that going to 1 year on 44,389 is all that is possible. middle class is being squeezed like never before.

fact is, america will definitely be a 3rd country eventually. the 'global' economy is actually pulling america down, however it is benefiting the 3rd world. i guess the people in power want all countries to be equal, while the 3rd rises, america falls.

[Heracles 417]

Those statistics are meaningless unless you control for location.

They're not meaningless at all. Less than 3 percent of households earn over $200K and less than 15 percent earn over $100K.

America as a country is wealthy, however, Americans on average are poor. Sure you are wealthier than Indians, Chinese, Mexicans but is that where you want to set the bar? In reality, the average Joe is significantly poorer than their equivalent in many other first would countries. Once upon a time, in 50s to 60s, this was not the case. Personally, I don't care if the country as a whole has $100 trillion in wealth, it's the average that counts.

What the wealthy here do is dangle a carrot and have the 80 percent kill one another like fools [dog-eats-dog], trying to get it. The reality is that it's an illusion and a diversion, as the wealthy are not going to give it up period.

This allow the wealthy to amass huge sums of money, while the rest fight crumbs is why the rest of the world [or developing world] has grand projects to improve their country, like the stuff you posted about yesterday; while US cities get worse and worse and worse. This is not me being anti-anything, it's reality.

Edited August 6, 2010 by Heracles

[^_^ 5,021]

They're not meaningless at all. Less than 3 percent of households earn over $200K and less than 15 percent earn over $100K.

America is not a tiny country of a few million people like Australia is. We have lots of counties where the median income is over 100K and then we have counties where the median income is in the 20s. Those overall aggregate figures are meaningless when you discuss a nation of this size and variation.

[Ban Hammer 13,457]

when your sample size is as large as the US and your standard deviations are as large as they are here, sure you can produce a median (and a mean and a mode etc) but how useful are those metrics, really? i'd much rather see a control based on actual cost of living (which ties in to location).

some of the relo calculators online purport to do that but i'm not convinced that their methodologies are all that sound.

true - one guy that worked here moved to virginia to make "mo money" - that 10k pay increase was gobbled up real quick with the difference in housing prices.

[^_^ 5,021]

true - one guy that worked here moved to virginia to make "mo money" - that 10k pay increase was gobbled up real quick with the difference in housing prices.

anyone who moves to ks to va for a measly 10k is a moron.

[Heracles 417]

America is not a tiny country of a few million people like Australia is. We have lots of counties where the median income is over 100K and then we have counties where the median income is in the 20s. Those overall aggregate figures are meaningless when you discuss a nation of this size and variation.

You're pulling a Spook now. I don't care about the isolated pockets of wealthy, we all know they exist, as they do in every third world country. Logical people look at the average, look at the entire cities like Newark, Detroit, Memphis etc that are dirt poor and earning salaries and living in conditions similar to people living in the third world.

Edited August 6, 2010 by Heracles

[^_^ 5,021]

You're pulling a Spook now. I don't care about the isolated pockets of wealthy, we all know they exist, as they do in every third world country. Logical people look at the average, look at the entire cities like Newark, Detroit, Memphis etc that are dirt poor and earning salaries and living in conditions similar to people living in the third world.

Greater DC and Greater NY are not "isolated pockets" They're more like the bulk of the human population on the east coast.