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Why do we - ordinary workers and students - have to drink the “spinach juice”? Why not the people who have amassed utterly unprecedented amounts of wealth and p

Why do we - ordinary workers and students - have to drink the “spinach juice”? Why not the people who have amassed utterly unprecedented amounts of wealth and power?

conanbatt 9y ago
Taxes are that fantastic thing that does good to everyone, specially when other people pay it.
pishpash 9y ago
Because ordinary workers and students don't or aren't able to effectively exercise political power, ceding the polity to those who do so.
JonFish85 9y ago
Because there is so much more money in the “ordinary workers and students” subset of society than there is in the top 0.x%.
- sidlls 9y ago
  Not on an individual basis.
- wahern 9y ago
  I can't tell if you're being sarcastic. FWIW, in 2011 the top 0.01% earned 5% of national income, the top 0.1% earned 10%, and the top 1% earned 20%. Source: http://ritholtz.com/2011/10/forget-the-top-1-look-at-the-top-0-1/ http://ritholtz.com/2011/10/forget-the-top-1-look-at-the-top... In 2016 the top 25% earned 51% of national income. Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/203247/shares-of-household-income-of-quintiles-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/203247/shares-of-househo...
- mattkrause 9y ago
  All those filthy rich grad students pulling in $20-35k/yr!
SamReidHughes 9y ago
Ordinary workers aren't the main beneficiaries of retirement savings plans. It's the people that can afford $20K/yr to save that benefit.
jdavis703 9y ago
You can eliminate all tax deductions, tax the wealthy, and cut middle class taxes at the same time. All of that requires that everyone in society drink some "spinach juice" though. Of course doing those three things are politically impossible in the current environment, but that's a different problem.
AnimalMuppet 9y ago
Because, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, raising other peoples' taxes isn't going to be enough. We're going to have to raise yours, too.

Why do we - ordinary workers and students - have to drink the “spinach juice”? Why not the people who have amassed utterly unprecedented amounts of wealth and power?

conanbatt 9y ago

Taxes are that fantastic thing that does good to everyone, specially when other people pay it.

pishpash 9y ago

Because ordinary workers and students don't or aren't able to effectively exercise political power, ceding the polity to those who do so.

JonFish85 9y ago

Because there is so much more money in the “ordinary workers and students” subset of society than there is in the top 0.x%.

sidlls 9y ago
Not on an individual basis.
wahern 9y ago
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic. FWIW, in 2011 the top 0.01% earned 5% of national income, the top 0.1% earned 10%, and the top 1% earned 20%. Source: http://ritholtz.com/2011/10/forget-the-top-1-look-at-the-top-0-1/ http://ritholtz.com/2011/10/forget-the-top-1-look-at-the-top... In 2016 the top 25% earned 51% of national income. Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/203247/shares-of-household-income-of-quintiles-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/203247/shares-of-househo...
mattkrause 9y ago
All those filthy rich grad students pulling in $20-35k/yr!

SamReidHughes 9y ago

Ordinary workers aren't the main beneficiaries of retirement savings plans. It's the people that can afford $20K/yr to save that benefit.

jdavis703 9y ago

You can eliminate all tax deductions, tax the wealthy, and cut middle class taxes at the same time. All of that requires that everyone in society drink some "spinach juice" though. Of course doing those three things are politically impossible in the current environment, but that's a different problem.

AnimalMuppet 9y ago

Because, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, raising other peoples' taxes isn't going to be enough. We're going to have to raise yours, too.