‘We Can Do Better Working Together’: Letter to the Editor

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Letter to the Editor

Dear community,

           People are talking a lot about Culture Wars. The July 15 issue of Time Magazine has an article titled “The Polarization Myth” by Karl Vick. Research shows that most people actually have pretty similar ideas about how they want our country to work, but they think the other side has really radical ideas. The leaders and more politically involved people on both sides tend to identify with their differences. So, the differences get exaggerated. It’s obvious that the two sides have different styles of being and ways of thinking. Our country is changing. Those who identify with a  new reality are not going back. Those who prefer to live in our old reality can still do that as long as we can maintain democracy and free choice. If we head into dictatorship, we will have no say in how our country is run. Leadership could change and life could get very difficult for everyone. If we look for what we have in common we can work together to maintain democracy. Please check out Project 2025 before you vote. It’s the conservative plan to return us to the Middle Ages, with the rich like feudal lords at the top taking advantage of an underpaid nation.

       It’s hard to see all the forces fanning the flames of the culture wars. We can get a better idea of an important part of the problem if we look at our tax rates. What were the tax rates back when America “used to be great”? From the mid 40’s through the early 60’s the average tax rate for the top tax bracket, over $200-400,000, was about 90%. From 1965-81 it was about 70%, for over about $200,000. From 1987-2021 the top bracket was 30-40%; for above $90,000 to above $600,000. These figures don’t include all the tax loopholes and other advantages for the wealthy, like lowered capital gains taxes and corporate taxes. We financed World War I and our rise out of the Great Depression with special taxes on incomes over $1,000,000 in 1916-21 and 1932-1941. This information is from taxfoundation.org, “Historical Federal Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets, 1862-2021”. So, we see a pattern of a gradual lowering of taxes on the wealthy. Also we see two historical precedents for higher taxes on the very rich. Why are there not higher taxes on the very rich now? The very rich have an unfair advantage over normal wage earners. Most of them are born into money. If you have big money, it’s very easy to make a lot more. The rich can afford to start their own space programs, while the middle class and the poor are struggling. The rich can buy politicians that make life even more unfair. This country is founded on the idea that we are all created equal. Everyone should have a fair chance for a decent, fulfilling life. It’s impossible for all lives to be the same, but ALL LIVES MATTER. The rich need to pay their fair share. History shows us that unequal economies are unstable. Fair economies work better.

         If most the people on the lower end of our economy work together and demand that the rich pay their fair share, change will happen. We can have better health care, better schools, and take better care of our environment. Biden has said that if the very rich paid more taxes we could save social security from running out of money in the next decade. Why aren’t the people on the lower end of our economy getting together? Is it in the best interest of the rich to divide us? Divide and conquer is an ancient strategy. Are the very rich supporting angry candidates that are driving us further apart?                                                                                         

Cat McAdams

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19 Let us come and reason together. Isaiah 1:18
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sohumjoe
Member
sohumjoe
3 months ago

Until the stock market gets some major reforms, I don’t think the rich will ever be paying their fair share. If you are filthy rich, there are ways to make money, and avoid even capital gains taxes.

I was part of the Gamestop thing a few years ago, I got in right after the squeeze, and was under the impression that it would do it again. During the 2 years I was all up in it, I learned how to use the billions I was going to make when the Big Squeeze squoze, to live like a king for the rest of my life and not pay taxes. It can be done. Infact, it’s done everyday by the Mega-wealthy

Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
3 months ago
Reply to  sohumjoe

Remember,

The wealthy can buy politicians, like normal people buy new shoes…

They can also afford an army of tax lawyers to find loopholes, offshore bank accounts, and one million ways to avoid paying their fair share…

Like Donald Trump, for instance, who inflated the value of his properties and borrowed money against them, and when he went broke, like in Atlantic City, he filed Bankruptcy, and didn’t pay the loans off…

It takes money to break laws, and even when he was fined a half a Billion Dollars, other wealthy people put up the cash…

Donald Trump might as well call himself a Cartel, rather than a business, since he breaks laws as a matter of daily operations…

History will prove that honest labor, and lifelong investment and frugality is simply insane, and that everyone who is not out for himself alone, is stupid…

I know used car salesmen with a more sensible argument than yours, and I suggest that you forget all that Yoga-Hippie trash and follow what Warren Buffet says a bit more closely, work your ass off and don’t buy depreciating assets with your own money: Lease them…

I have other great advice, but when you retire with income, is when you find out how totally screwed you are…

And like our accountant used to say:

“you shouldn’t pay taxes if you don’t have to”…

Last edited 3 months ago
Old SchoolD
Member
Old School
3 months ago

Hate the rich and suck em dry, got it.

D'Tucker Jebs
Member
3 months ago
Reply to  Old School

Or don’t hate them and just get them to pay more taxes.
They’ll still be rich, and the rest of us can be better off too.

Two Dogs
Guest
Two Dogs
3 months ago
Reply to  D'Tucker Jebs

Or we could elect people who don’t squander the money we have.

Joe
Guest
Joe
3 months ago
Reply to  D'Tucker Jebs

You are assuming that the government would do the right thing if they received more tax money. Lol you think that because you love the government

Jeffersonian
Guest
Jeffersonian
3 months ago

Actually the rich pay over ninety percent of income taxes

melanopsin
Member
3 months ago
Reply to  Jeffersonian

Misleading comment!

IOW, the total of taxes paid by the rich 1% amounts to more than the total of taxes paid by the remaining 99% of us.

If you make over $578126 your tax rate is 37%. ref:

https://www.irs.gov/filing/federal-income-tax-rates-and-brackets

However the Corproate Tax Rate is currently only 21%. Historically, corporations were in the 90% tax bracket.

Last edited 3 months ago
Alf
Guest
Alf
3 months ago

There’s no under taxing going on. Everyone should pay less taxes. The problem is with the government elites wasting tax dollars on every stupid thing they can find. I say eliminate all government foreign aid spending, all government grants, scholarships, ans subsidies. Rein in entitlements for drug addicts except legitimate treatment, for those who refuse to work and give nothing but a one way ticket the hell out of the country for illegals. Until we the people are willing to force the government to stop wasting, there’s absolutely no room for a discussion about taxation.

willow creekerD
Member
3 months ago
Reply to  Alf

There are certainly ways to cheat on your taxes legally, you and I both know that. There is also a lot of government waste. Both things have been true since the beginning of, well, taxes.

melanopsin
Member
3 months ago
Reply to  willow creeker

A form of redistribution of wealth?

Joe
Guest
Joe
3 months ago
Reply to  willow creeker

I personally do everything I can to not give money to the government in the form of taxes. Same as politicians (rich people) but on a smaller scale

Hunter'sHardDrive
Guest
Hunter'sHardDrive
3 months ago
Reply to  Alf

Yes, and get addicts off SSI and save social security. Why should young people get money from the system that older retired citizens paid for? A system that they paid no money into and then get a hard working person’s money for the “contribution” of being a stinking drug addict. Absurd, and at its core corrupt. Send them to Singapore.

Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
3 months ago

In 1983, Joe Biden and Ronald Reagan came up with the idea to make Social Security taxable, and screwed the entire population of retirees…

So Corporations and Billionaires can pay nothing while retirees who have income pay taxes on the same income which they have already paid taxes on…

This is unacceptable, and apparently a bill to make SS non taxed has been proposed… So far, no action…

If you work and save and invest, you will pay taxes on your IRA, your savings interest and your SS!

Outrageous, and the $30000 Standard Deduction means that you are not eligible for most deductions for your mortgage, medical bills etc…

So you are screwed, unless your income stays low…

Outside Looking In
Guest
Outside Looking In
3 months ago

Unless you’re one of the very wealthy whose taxes would be raised under this proposal, advocating to raise taxes on someone else but not yourself is a chickenshit move.

“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what YOU can do for your country.”

Hunter'sHardDrive
Guest
Hunter'sHardDrive
3 months ago

” Please check out Project 2025 before you vote. It’s the conservative plan to return us to the Middle Ages, with the rich like feudal lords at the top taking advantage of an underpaid nation.”

HUH, the Republican party has distanced themselves from 2025. By the way, they change the year in this title every cycle, and the party has never embraced it.

Sparky
Guest
Sparky
3 months ago

I keep reading about radical ideas. Yes, like building giant windmills off our remote coast line to power the ugly EV addiction.
☮️💙🇺🇸

Kicking Bull
Guest
Kicking Bull
3 months ago

It is of the utmost importance to the intelligence communities that the tea party movement and occupy wall street never realize they’re saying the same thing.