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You have no idea what that person's situation is from their income. I know retired people with a lot of money who pay hardly any income taxes because they don'

by gozur88 10y ago

You have no idea what that person's situation is from their income. I know retired people with a lot of money who pay hardly any income taxes because they don't have much income. I also know people who could make a million this year and not be out of debt.

dpark 10y ago
If you're earning 10MM/year and unable to make ends meet, you're terrible with money and it's your fault. Maybe you can construct a far-fetched scenario in which this could reasonably be the case, but in the real world virtually anyone making 10MM/year is extremely wealthy or extremely incompetent. If you're making 30k/year, you are just barely making enough to support a family on your income. Yes it's possible to be wealthy and low income, but it's uncommon and generally indicative of retirement or something similar.
- gozur88 10y ago
  >If you're earning 10MM/year and unable to make ends meet, you're terrible with money and it's your fault. Maybe, but not necessarily. What if I spent twenty years putting myself in the position to make $10m in one year? >If you're making 30k/year, you are just barely making enough to support a family on your income. Yes it's possible to be wealthy and low income, but it's uncommon and generally indicative of retirement or something similar. Well, yeah, but so what? My point was you're making a lot of assumptions based on income alone.
  - dpark 10y ago
    If you spend 20 years setting yourself to make $10MM one year and you still can't make ends meet then you are clearly incompetent. I don't understand what your point is with this whole argument. Yes, there are always exceptions. They aren't very interesting but the very nature of being exceptions, especially since tax laws are written for the general case. The number of multi millionaires in your exceptional case is also much smaller than you probably think. It's vanishingly difficult to earn no money when you have millions in assets.
    - gozur88 10y ago
      >If you spend 20 years setting yourself to make $10MM one year and you still can't make ends meet then you are clearly incompetent. I don't see how you could make a statement like that. It costs money to live, and it costs money to keep a business venture going. After 20 years you may own $20m. It doesn't necessarily mean you're incompetent. It may just mean things didn't go the way you planned. >I don't understand what your point is with this whole argument. Yes, there are always exceptions. They aren't very interesting but the very nature of being exceptions, especially since tax laws are written for the general case. My point is you don't know enough about someone's situation to make a blanket "they can afford it" or "they can't afford it" statement, and that statement underpins the entire argument for forcing people with higher incomes to pay more taxes. >The number of multi millionaires in your exceptional case is also much smaller than you probably think. Or it's much larger than you probably think. Nobody knows. Why are you assuming you know? > It's vanishingly difficult to earn no money when you have millions in assets. Actually, with current interest rates it's pretty easy. I know people with millions in assets who put their money in safe investments, because there's no reason to take risks when you have millions and you're in your 70s. Right now the interest on safe investments is a rounding error.
      - dpark 10y ago
        > I don't see how you could make a statement like that. It costs money to live, and it costs money to keep a business venture going. After 20 years you may own $20m. It doesn't necessarily mean you're incompetent. It may just mean things didn't go the way you planned. If you have $10 million in income and cannot make ends meet, something is wrong with you. I understand that you could also have debt. That doesn't mean you aren't "making ends meet". I have more debt than income. I'm making ends meet just fine. > My point is you don't know enough about someone's situation to make a blanket "they can afford it" or "they can't afford it" statement, and that statement underpins the entire argument for forcing people with higher incomes to pay more taxes. Income is extremely correlated with how much of anything one can afford, including taxes. What is your alternative anyway? We'll just stop taxing people entirely because we can't really know what they can afford? Or are you just being pointlessly argumentative? > Or it's much larger than you probably think. Nobody knows. Why are you assuming you know? Because I did the math, as could you. > Actually, with current interest rates it's pretty easy. I know people with millions in assets who put their money in safe investments, because there's no reason to take risks when you have millions and you're in your 70s. Right now the interest on safe investments is a rounding error. Drop your millions into T Bills for 5 years and you'll earn 1.3% on the safest investment you'll get. 1.3 is a rounding error? Ok. On a million dollars it's also 13k. So if you park 5 million in this absurdly low interest investment you'll still make 65k/year. So no, it's not easy to make no money if you have millions in assets. A few million in safe investments yields more income yearly than the average American family makes.

by gozur88 10y ago

dpark 10y ago

If you're earning 10MM/year and unable to make ends meet, you're terrible with money and it's your fault. Maybe you can construct a far-fetched scenario in which this could reasonably be the case, but in the real world virtually anyone making 10MM/year is extremely wealthy or extremely incompetent. If you're making 30k/year, you are just barely making enough to support a family on your income. Yes it's possible to be wealthy and low income, but it's uncommon and generally indicative of retirement or something similar.

gozur88 10y ago
>If you're earning 10MM/year and unable to make ends meet, you're terrible with money and it's your fault. Maybe, but not necessarily. What if I spent twenty years putting myself in the position to make $10m in one year? >If you're making 30k/year, you are just barely making enough to support a family on your income. Yes it's possible to be wealthy and low income, but it's uncommon and generally indicative of retirement or something similar. Well, yeah, but so what? My point was you're making a lot of assumptions based on income alone.
- dpark 10y ago
  If you spend 20 years setting yourself to make $10MM one year and you still can't make ends meet then you are clearly incompetent. I don't understand what your point is with this whole argument. Yes, there are always exceptions. They aren't very interesting but the very nature of being exceptions, especially since tax laws are written for the general case. The number of multi millionaires in your exceptional case is also much smaller than you probably think. It's vanishingly difficult to earn no money when you have millions in assets.
  - gozur88 10y ago
    >If you spend 20 years setting yourself to make $10MM one year and you still can't make ends meet then you are clearly incompetent. I don't see how you could make a statement like that. It costs money to live, and it costs money to keep a business venture going. After 20 years you may own $20m. It doesn't necessarily mean you're incompetent. It may just mean things didn't go the way you planned. >I don't understand what your point is with this whole argument. Yes, there are always exceptions. They aren't very interesting but the very nature of being exceptions, especially since tax laws are written for the general case. My point is you don't know enough about someone's situation to make a blanket "they can afford it" or "they can't afford it" statement, and that statement underpins the entire argument for forcing people with higher incomes to pay more taxes. >The number of multi millionaires in your exceptional case is also much smaller than you probably think. Or it's much larger than you probably think. Nobody knows. Why are you assuming you know? > It's vanishingly difficult to earn no money when you have millions in assets. Actually, with current interest rates it's pretty easy. I know people with millions in assets who put their money in safe investments, because there's no reason to take risks when you have millions and you're in your 70s. Right now the interest on safe investments is a rounding error.
    - dpark 10y ago
      > I don't see how you could make a statement like that. It costs money to live, and it costs money to keep a business venture going. After 20 years you may own $20m. It doesn't necessarily mean you're incompetent. It may just mean things didn't go the way you planned. If you have $10 million in income and cannot make ends meet, something is wrong with you. I understand that you could also have debt. That doesn't mean you aren't "making ends meet". I have more debt than income. I'm making ends meet just fine. > My point is you don't know enough about someone's situation to make a blanket "they can afford it" or "they can't afford it" statement, and that statement underpins the entire argument for forcing people with higher incomes to pay more taxes. Income is extremely correlated with how much of anything one can afford, including taxes. What is your alternative anyway? We'll just stop taxing people entirely because we can't really know what they can afford? Or are you just being pointlessly argumentative? > Or it's much larger than you probably think. Nobody knows. Why are you assuming you know? Because I did the math, as could you. > Actually, with current interest rates it's pretty easy. I know people with millions in assets who put their money in safe investments, because there's no reason to take risks when you have millions and you're in your 70s. Right now the interest on safe investments is a rounding error. Drop your millions into T Bills for 5 years and you'll earn 1.3% on the safest investment you'll get. 1.3 is a rounding error? Ok. On a million dollars it's also 13k. So if you park 5 million in this absurdly low interest investment you'll still make 65k/year. So no, it's not easy to make no money if you have millions in assets. A few million in safe investments yields more income yearly than the average American family makes.