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First: I think the tax situation with capital gains is not fair or warranted, and that we should tax long-term capital gains like regular income instead of havi

First: I think the tax situation with capital gains is not fair or warranted, and that we should tax long-term capital gains like regular income instead of having a separate 15% rate for it. That said, your assertion is not true. 15% is higher than the effective tax rate of 10.5% paid by the average single teacher in the US: Average salary: $60477 [0] Standard Deduction for single filers: $12400. 10% bracket for $0 through $9,875 == $988 tax. 12% bracket for $9876 through $40125 == $3630 tax. 22% bracket for $40126 through ($60477 - $12400 - $40125) == $1749 tax. This totals $6367, which is 10.5% of $60477. Less than 15%. The numbers are different if the teacher is married, has children, interest, etc. We can discuss whether it's fair. I said above, I think it's not; there's a "minimum overhead" to living in the US that takes up a much larger fraction of $60477 than $1B, regardless of lifestyle. But people act like Bezos et al are just not paying as much as regular people, and it's just not true. $150M is more in absolute terms, and in many cases relative terms as well. [0] http://www.nea.org/home/74876.htm http://www.nea.org/home/74876.htm

tosers4 6y ago
Why does even capital gains have a different tax rate from dividend. I would fix that first.
- saxonww 6y ago
  I'm not an economist or finance person, so I don't know why we really ended up where we are. I think a lot of people in this thread, and most of the non-investment-wealthy people in the US, would say it's because of lobbying and so forth to let the rich get richer. That may be true. But I am open to the idea that research and modeling points to this being good overall even if it appears to be (or: is) unfair to 'average' Americans. I'd like to see some (comprehensible to a layperson) discussion about what would happen if all income - wages, tips, gifts, inheritance, interest, dividends, capital gains, etc. etc. - was treated dollar for dollar equally from a tax perspective. I don't understand why it couldn't be, or why it shouldn't be.
mars4rp 6y ago
"Bezos et al are just not paying as much as regular people" they are not! they might pay more at the $ value, but not more of their net worth. If you are making $100k and pay at least $20k in taxes, your net worth should be $20M to be in the same bracket as Bezos!

tosers4 6y ago

Why does even capital gains have a different tax rate from dividend. I would fix that first.

saxonww 6y ago
I'm not an economist or finance person, so I don't know why we really ended up where we are. I think a lot of people in this thread, and most of the non-investment-wealthy people in the US, would say it's because of lobbying and so forth to let the rich get richer. That may be true. But I am open to the idea that research and modeling points to this being good overall even if it appears to be (or: is) unfair to 'average' Americans. I'd like to see some (comprehensible to a layperson) discussion about what would happen if all income - wages, tips, gifts, inheritance, interest, dividends, capital gains, etc. etc. - was treated dollar for dollar equally from a tax perspective. I don't understand why it couldn't be, or why it shouldn't be.

mars4rp 6y ago

"Bezos et al are just not paying as much as regular people" they are not! they might pay more at the $ value, but not more of their net worth. If you are making $100k and pay at least $20k in taxes, your net worth should be $20M to be in the same bracket as Bezos!