Author Topic: How much of your money should the government take?  (Read 9815 times)

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Offline Dexter

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How much of your money should the government take?
« on: November 08, 2018, 05:19:34 am »
It has to be some, right? All that concrete for our bridges and highways is pretty expensive, and then you've got the military. Public education? In your opinion what's an acceptable amount? Which programs are you okay with contributing to?
« Last Edit: November 08, 2018, 05:33:20 am by Dexter »
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Offline dfwgator

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2018, 05:29:52 am »
Are we talking Federal, State, Local? 

Offline Dexter

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2018, 05:32:43 am »
Are we talking Federal, State, Local?

All of the above. What parts of government expenditure should be kept and which parts should go away? How should what's left be paid for?
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Offline Frank Cannon

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2018, 05:41:27 am »
All of it. I'm off the grid now and only doing transactions in chickens and home made dream catchers.

Offline dfwgator

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2018, 05:43:00 am »
Military, Roads, basic Infrastructure.

Certainly not to pay able-bodied people to sit on their ass.

Offline Dexter

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #5 on: November 08, 2018, 05:45:27 am »
Military, Roads, basic Infrastructure.

Certainly not to pay able-bodied people to sit on their ass.

What about public education? Medicare/medicaid? How much do you think all of what you'd end up accepting as necessary might cost? How much should you be expected to pay into that cost?
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Offline RoosGirl

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #6 on: November 08, 2018, 05:45:48 am »
All of it. I'm off the grid now and only doing transactions in chickens and home made dream catchers.

Chickens?  Really?  You interested in trading for a pair of flip flops I make out of old Amazon boxes or dress shirts from old tarps and duct tape?

Offline Dexter

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #7 on: November 08, 2018, 05:46:31 am »
Chickens?  Really?  You interested in trading for a pair of flip flops I make out of old Amazon boxes or dress shirts from old tarps and duct tape?

What?

That's a TERRIBLE trade.

Don't do it Frank.
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Offline Frank Cannon

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #8 on: November 08, 2018, 05:50:36 am »
Chickens?  Really?  You interested in trading for a pair of flip flops I make out of old Amazon boxes or dress shirts from old tarps and duct tape?

Yeah. I do way better with the dream catchers than the chickens and that shit is prime dream catcher material.


Online corbe

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #9 on: November 08, 2018, 06:19:53 am »
   I don't give a $hit how much taxes you suckers pay just don't legalize/Tax my pot. Besides trump announced today that 2019 is infrastructure year.  I was under the impression that Dominoes was fixin the streets.
No government in the 12,000 years of modern mankind history has led its people into anything but the history books with a simple lesson, don't let this happen to you.

Online roamer_1

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #10 on: November 08, 2018, 06:31:40 am »
You are asking the wrong question.
Why do you automatically assume government is the answer?

Example: It has been a while, but last I looked the average cost to educate a kid via the government was around 10k per year... At the same time, I was paying 6k a year for excellent private Christian school.

Offline Frank Cannon

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #11 on: November 08, 2018, 06:37:00 am »
You are asking the wrong question.
Why do you automatically assume government is the answer?

Example: It has been a while, but last I looked the average cost to educate a kid via the government was around 10k per year... At the same time, I was paying 6k a year for excellent private Christian school.

What if you are Jewish? Then you are screwed.

Online DB

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #12 on: November 08, 2018, 06:40:07 am »
What it was constitutionally authorized to fund.

Which is a tiny fraction of what it is doing these days.

Online roamer_1

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #13 on: November 08, 2018, 06:50:24 am »
What if you are Jewish? Then you are screwed.

Nah. Jews have private schools too.

You're only screwed if your mom is an ex-hippie bunny-hugger who insists on home-school. Then it's tofu and rice cakes 24/7...

Offline Frank Cannon

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #14 on: November 08, 2018, 07:10:30 am »
Nah. Jews have private schools too.

You're only screwed if your mom is an ex-hippie bunny-hugger who insists on home-school. Then it's tofu and rice cakes 24/7...

Awesome. My kid only eats hamburgers and Friday at the Catholic school would be a real bitch.

Offline catfish1957

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #15 on: November 08, 2018, 11:19:02 am »
Yeah. I do way better with the dream catchers than the chickens and that shit is prime dream catcher material.



I knew that 100 extra bucks going to Amazon was buying you something.
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Offline Applewood

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #16 on: November 08, 2018, 12:06:41 pm »
It has to be some, right? All that concrete for our bridges and highways is pretty expensive, and then you've got the military. Public education? In your opinion what's an acceptable amount? Which programs are you okay with contributing to?

I'm ok with payimg taxes to fund the item you mention, except:

(a) Duplication, triplication, etc. etc. of agencies at all levels of government looking for tax dollars for the same thing.  I pay school taxes on my property to fund the local school district.  Why am I paying state and federal taxes for "education?"  And the worst part of it is the kids in my neighborhood can recite every social justice talking point, but they can't read, write or do math.  Where is my money for education going?

(b) The demand for increased taxes or new taxes to fund something for which we have already paid a short time ago.  For example, didn't taxpayers pay for "shovel-ready" jobs in the Obama administration?  Now we hear that the roads are still in bad shape and more money is needed.  Where did all that money spent during Obie's reign go?  I can tell you that on my side of PA, it wasn't spent on infrastructure.  Roads and bridges here are still a mess.  Or the two spending spree bills signed by Trump back to back allegedly for the military.  What happened to the money  spent under the first bill?

And the above brings me to

(c) A lack of public accountability.  I don't like that my elected officials vote on tax increases or new taxes without any investigation or accounting to show there is a need.  Maybe congress and our state and local officials are being informed of facts and figures, but we the people are not.  Am I supposed to take the word of government bureaucrats that more or new taxes are needed?  No!  There should be a law or rule that before more money is spent, the books should be open to the public and the public should be able to tell its elected officials whether to implement new taxes or raise existing ones. 




Offline goatprairie

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #17 on: November 08, 2018, 12:49:03 pm »
The proper answer: only as much as is absolutely needed. There is no exact set amount you should allow the gov. at any level to take.
And the people spending the money have to be watched like hawks.
In my county the county commissioners were given a certain amount of tax money to spend on various things including road construction/repair.
They chose to spend just about nothing on road repair with the result that many roads in the county are in a terrible state.
Who got blamed? Scott Walker.

Offline Sanguine

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #18 on: November 08, 2018, 02:11:50 pm »
God only asks for 10%.  Seems like the government's cut should be even less.

Offline Dexter

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #19 on: November 08, 2018, 02:17:47 pm »
God only asks for 10%.  Seems like the government's cut should be even less.

It's ridiculous how many obscenely wealthy corporations and people get away with paying way less taxes than they're meant to in my opinion. If there was a flat tax that was actually enforced on the rich, no bullshit, I think there would be plenty of money.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2018, 02:59:09 pm by Dexter »
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Offline Sanguine

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #20 on: November 08, 2018, 02:22:23 pm »
It's ridiculous how many obscenely wealthy corporations and people get away with paying way less taxes than they're meant to in my opinion. If there was a flat tax that was actually enforced on the rich and the businesses they down, no bullshit, I think there would be plenty of money.

Corporations don't pay taxes - they pass the cost on to the consumers.  People pay taxes.

And, as you well know, "rich people" already do pay most of the taxes.  The lower 50% of earners pay little to no taxes.

Offline Dexter

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #21 on: November 08, 2018, 02:26:56 pm »
People pay taxes.

"Corporations are people."

Quote
"rich people" already do pay most of the taxes.

A lot of rich people avoid a lot of the taxes they're supposed to pay. Remember the Panama Papers? When these people don't give what they're supposed to who do you think covers the bill? I don't know about you, but I'm not rich enough to have some fancy tax genius save me from the government.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2018, 02:30:14 pm by Dexter »
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Offline Sanguine

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #22 on: November 08, 2018, 02:36:01 pm »
"Corporations are people."

You avoided the point that they just pass the taxes on to the consumers.  People foot the bill, the taxes are just passed through the corporations.

Quote
A lot of rich people avoid a lot of the taxes they're supposed to pay. Remember the Panama Papers? When these people don't give what they're supposed to who do you think covers the bill? I don't know about you, but I'm not rich enough to have some fancy tax genius save me from the government.

I understand that this is the popular mythology, but I have not found it to be true with people I have actually known.  Rich people pay lots and lots of taxes.  And, no, I'm not rich enough to need some fancy tax genius.  Turbotax works fine for me. 

The Panama Papers?  You mean a leak of financial data for some global/international companies?  How do you fit that into this discussion?

Offline DCPatriot

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #23 on: November 08, 2018, 02:37:33 pm »
All of it. I'm off the grid now and only doing transactions in chickens and home made dream catchers.

You and me, both. 
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Offline Dexter

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Re: How much of your money should the government take?
« Reply #24 on: November 08, 2018, 02:46:53 pm »
Rich people pay lots and lots of taxes.

A lot of them avoid lots of taxes too. Surely you're not contesting that? They need to pay the amount mandated by the government with no funny business, whatever that number is. If they shouldn't pay so much then we should move levers in government to make that happen, but they need to pay what the law expects.

The Panama Papers?  You mean a leak of financial data for some global/international companies?  How do you fit that into this discussion?

It was a lot more than that. The Panama Papers revealed an incredible amount of tax fraud/avoidance by the ultra rich.
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