The Truth About the Economy

[trish]

But am I not qualified considering the recipient of the current Peace Prize?

No. You aren't.

[Faldur]

No. You aren't.

[iamdrgonzo]

Capitol gains is only taxed at 15%? Maybe he should have included the fact that that is ONLY long-term CGT. The current rate on short-term CGT is 33%. Small fact to leave out.

Short-term capital gains are taxed at the investor's ordinary tax rate, and are defined as investments held for a year or less before being sold. Long-term capital gains, which apply to assets held for more than one year, are taxed at a lower rate than short-term gains.


Maybe you should have read about what the definitions of Short-term/Long-term capital gains were before typing about them.

Any society that taxes the earnings of it's working class at 25% while taxing it's investment class at 15% (on assests held greater than a year) is practising economic cannabalism.

Capital gains tax in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:US-GreatSeal-Obverse.svg" class="image" title="Obverse side of the Great Seal of the United States"><img alt="Obverse side of the Great Seal of the United States" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/US-GreatSeal-Obverse.svg/100px-US-GreatSeal-Obverse.svg.png"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/b/be/US-GreatSeal-Obverse.svg/100px-US-GreatSeal-Obverse.svg.png

[Faldur]

Maybe you should have read about what the definitions of Short-term/Long-term capital gains were before typing about them.

Any society that taxes the earnings of it's working class at 25% while taxing it's investment class at 15% (on assests held greater than a year) is practising economic cannabalism.

?? Your first statement was exactly what I said, stcgt at 33% ltcgt at 15%, I am at a loss what I should have read? Look at it this way, if Reich made the statement in the video that our richest tax payers were paying mostly capitol gains taxes and that rate is 33%. The statement would have been partially true, but disingenuous. Had he pointed out that the capitol tax was on a variable scale with X% being taxed at the stcgt rate I would have bought it as well presented. Like so many on both sides he twists the facts.

Ok, this is laughable. Tax the "working class" at 25%? Do you mean the 48% of working America that pays a whopping 0% in taxes? How the heck do you get 25% out of that? And do not give me that sad song about un-employment, SSI, Medicare, Sales tax.. were talking INCOME tax.

[joeninety]

Well if you would like to see my opinion of spending and debt look up the thread on "60 minutes = $188 million in new debt", there should be no doubt of my opinion on that.

If you want to see the "National wage average index", google that exact phrase and include "by year". It will get you to the government page that has all the statistics. If you want "Capitol Gains Tax Rate 2011", google it and you will see the charts. Try googling "Education spending by federal, state and local by year" to see the absurd amount of money that is increased in education spending each year. We don't have a spending problem when it comes to education, we have a union problem. For fun google "Tax Revenues by year" and look how revenues have gone up every year except for 2009 even though we extended the Obama tax cuts.

I stand on my original statement, the man's video is a heaping pile of shit.

Faldur A. Alderberry Nobel Economist 2011

I will check your thread and google the tax stuff, although not sure how conclusive it will be as goverments are forever siphoning money into lets just say black projects and god knows what else.

I can remember reading an article in a uk paper called the guardian some 12 years ago which said how the uk treasury could not account for where 9billion pounds worth of money had gone they did the books and it supposedly was not there and they supposedly could not say where this money was yeah ok.

These books and figures are so large that things can easily be cooked one way or the other so when its convenient (candidate trying to get into the whitehouse attacking the president) hey presto he knows the figures and when its not convenient (president under attack) he will say he has got his figures wrong thats not true blah blah, at the end of the day if they conclusively knew all there figures then there could conclusively be no arguing as the facts would be there in black and white.

The figures are constantly changing and some will not even be showing up, its too big to know, i think in reality they can't possible know all the figures so where they don't they guesstimate to help create whatever picture suits but its not conclusive it just what suits whose agenda who is in charge at given time

[iamdrgonzo]

?? Your first statement was exactly what I said, stcgt at 33% ltcgt at 15%, I am at a loss what I should have read?

Example 1 -A person in the top tax-bracket owns an asset and sells it within 364 days after purchasing it the sale will incur 35% short-term capital gains hit.

Example 2 - A person in the top tax-bracket owns an asset and sells it 366 days after purchasing it the sale will incur a 15% Long-term capital gains hit.

The difference is two days and the reduction in capital gains tax is 20% at 2008-2012 rates.

Ok, this is laughable. Tax the "working class" at 25%? Do you mean the 48% of working America that pays a whopping 0% in taxes? How the heck do you get 25% out of that? And do not give me that sad song about un-employment, SSI, Medicare, Sales tax.. were talking INCOME tax.

Federal income tax brackets for 2011

Single Filing Status




[Tax Rate Schedule X, Internal Revenue Code section 1(c)]

• 10% on taxable income from $0 to $8,500, plus
• 15% on taxable income over $8,500 to $34,500, plus
• 25% on taxable income over $34,500 to $83,600, plus
• 28% on taxable income over $83,600 to $174,400, plus
• 33% on taxable income over $174,400 to $379,150, plus
• 35% on taxable income over $379,150.

Perhaps you could provide some attributions to back your claims in the future.
http://taxes.about.com/od/Federal-In...1-Tax-Year.htm

[yodajazz]

What is sad is anyone who would believe anything they read or hear without fact checking it. Take this guys points one by one and you see its distorted, disingenuous, or factually inaccurate.

The National average wage index for the last 10 years has increased by 50%. Thats barely increasing? Thats 26% growth in 10 years after inflationary adjustments.

Capitol gains is only taxed at 15%? Maybe he should have included the fact that that is ONLY long-term CGT. The current rate on short-term CGT is 33%. Small fact to leave out.

Something tells me the national average wage index, is not accurate. An average fast food employee is not making $41,000 a year. Most sources say that higher end manufactoring jobs are being replaced by lower paying service jobs.

Also, short term capitol gains are those under one year. Someone with income over the 25% could easily hold their investment over one year to qualify for the lower rate.

One more question Faldur, since you believe all the points in video are wrong, then do you also disagree with his conclusion that a healthy middle class makes an economy strong?

[Faldur]

Perhaps you could provide some attributions to back your claims in the future.

The future is today, I would be happy to. You can post all the tax schedules you wish but reality is reality.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/30/pf/t...axes/index.htm

[trish]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/bu...leonhardt.html

[trish]

There are 100 households in the imaginary land of Zephina. The minimum yearly cost of maintaining a household is about 100 Zephcheks. A recent census shows that 50 households in Zephina have an income of exactly 100 Zs. Another 25 households have an income of 400 Zs; another 20 have an income of 1000 Zs and the remaining 5 households have an income of 10000 Zs. So the upper 5% rake in nearly 60% of the wealth (not unlike the U.S.). However, the tax rate in Zephina is 10% across the board. So 50 households pay 10 Zs each, 25 households pay 40 Zs each, 20 pay 100 Zs each and 5 pay 1000 Zz each. That’s a total tax revenue of 8500 Zs. The upper 5% of households paid 60% of the taxes, whereas the lower 50% paid just under 6% of the taxes. Is that fair? Of course not, because the lower 6% are now unable to maintain their households. One reasonably fair solution is to exempt the lower 50% from paying taxes and increase the taxes on the wealthier Zephinians (from 10% to 11%) just enough to cover the mere 500Zs which are currently being contributed by the poorest households. Another would be to spread that burden over the top 25% households.