5 ms·

I'd prefer lower taxes, then I could choose to work less hours.

alanbernstein 5y ago
What do taxes have to do with the ability of an average person to choose to work less than 40 hours per week, when a standard full-time position requires it?
gjsman-1000 5y ago
If the government can print money and give it away as stimulus, why do they even need your taxes? ;)
kromem 5y ago
I often see this being thrown out as something people desire, but I always wonder just what people would themselves cut. Like, do you want to get rid of social security and Medicare? That's a pretty big part of what's removed from a paycheck. Pay less towards defense spending? Whenever I look at where tax dollars actually go, while I do think there's a huge need for better accounting oversight and identifying inefficiencies in spending, it's not like the buckets themselves aren't worth investing in. Just like with any corporation, you need to invest in order to see a return. Optimizing that ROI is always a good thing, but simply taking all profit as dividends is a terrible investment strategy. Government is much like a giant corporation where everyone is a customer and (in theory) an equal shareholder. I don't want my money being spent inefficiently, but it's an incredible idea to be able to just contribute a portion of my money in order to reap returns in ways well beyond what I'd be able to accomplish as an individual investor or in ways I'd be even more fleeced by for profit alternatives. For example, Medicare pays less than any private insurance for the same treatments to providers, and because of the group size is nearly universally accepted. Everyone I know that's under the age where it kicks in but is close talks regularly about how much they hate their private insurance and how they can't wait to finally be on Medicare. I completely understand wanting better implementation of taxes, and fairer distribution of taxes based on means, but not so much the idea of not having them at all, or only thinking about their direct reduction. So I'm curious - when you look at the budget, what would you cut, by how much, and what would that proportionally save you per year?
- missedthecue 5y ago
  I'd love to be able to choose to opt-out of paying social security tax (and forfeit future benefits).
  - willcipriano 5y ago
    Don't worry, you'll get the forfit part just not the not paying part.
  - kromem 5y ago
    How do we as a society handle people who make that same gamble and fail to have any retirement savings by the time they age out of the workforce? Like if you forfeit the benefits, and then are suddenly destitute and old enough no one will hire you for work, what happens? Do your children need to forgo investing into their own retirement to support you? What if you don't have children willing to do that? I could forsee allowing people to back out of social security with some sort of escrow or trust as collateral against their future dependency on the state, but without that there's a high chance of people gambling and coming up short, and still landing on the government's dime without having contributed.
    - bagels 5y ago
      What already happens. You die destitute living under a bridge.
      - yoyohello13 5y ago
        What a great society we live in.
      - heavyset_go 5y ago
        That doesn't always happen because of filial responsibility laws. Children are obligated to take care of their indignant parents by law in 28 states in the US. If they get to skip out on their Social Security responsibility while they're working, their kids will have to pick up the slack when they can no longer work.
dgrin91 5y ago
For low income workers less taxes won't really help. They already get very low taxes (sometimes none) and a low percentage of a low salary is not a significant impact. If we change that from low percentage to very low percentage the impact wont really change. So low income workers won't be able to choose to work less hours.
- thfuran 5y ago
  >and a low percentage of a low salary is not a significant impact That seems wildly inaccurate. If my employer secretly decreased my salary by ten percent, it could take me months to even notice. If someone is living paycheck to paycheck, a few percent actually matters.
vnchr 5y ago
Work remotely and come to Florida.

What do taxes have to do with the ability of an average person to choose to work less than 40 hours per week, when a standard full-time position requires it?

gjsman-1000 5y ago

If the government can print money and give it away as stimulus, why do they even need your taxes? ;)

kromem 5y ago

I often see this being thrown out as something people desire, but I always wonder just what people would themselves cut. Like, do you want to get rid of social security and Medicare? That's a pretty big part of what's removed from a paycheck. Pay less towards defense spending? Whenever I look at where tax dollars actually go, while I do think there's a huge need for better accounting oversight and identifying inefficiencies in spending, it's not like the buckets themselves aren't worth investing in. Just like with any corporation, you need to invest in order to see a return. Optimizing that ROI is always a good thing, but simply taking all profit as dividends is a terrible investment strategy. Government is much like a giant corporation where everyone is a customer and (in theory) an equal shareholder. I don't want my money being spent inefficiently, but it's an incredible idea to be able to just contribute a portion of my money in order to reap returns in ways well beyond what I'd be able to accomplish as an individual investor or in ways I'd be even more fleeced by for profit alternatives. For example, Medicare pays less than any private insurance for the same treatments to providers, and because of the group size is nearly universally accepted. Everyone I know that's under the age where it kicks in but is close talks regularly about how much they hate their private insurance and how they can't wait to finally be on Medicare. I completely understand wanting better implementation of taxes, and fairer distribution of taxes based on means, but not so much the idea of not having them at all, or only thinking about their direct reduction. So I'm curious - when you look at the budget, what would you cut, by how much, and what would that proportionally save you per year?

missedthecue 5y ago
I'd love to be able to choose to opt-out of paying social security tax (and forfeit future benefits).
- willcipriano 5y ago
  Don't worry, you'll get the forfit part just not the not paying part.
- kromem 5y ago
  How do we as a society handle people who make that same gamble and fail to have any retirement savings by the time they age out of the workforce? Like if you forfeit the benefits, and then are suddenly destitute and old enough no one will hire you for work, what happens? Do your children need to forgo investing into their own retirement to support you? What if you don't have children willing to do that? I could forsee allowing people to back out of social security with some sort of escrow or trust as collateral against their future dependency on the state, but without that there's a high chance of people gambling and coming up short, and still landing on the government's dime without having contributed.
  - bagels 5y ago
    What already happens. You die destitute living under a bridge.
    - yoyohello13 5y ago
      What a great society we live in.
    - heavyset_go 5y ago
      That doesn't always happen because of filial responsibility laws. Children are obligated to take care of their indignant parents by law in 28 states in the US. If they get to skip out on their Social Security responsibility while they're working, their kids will have to pick up the slack when they can no longer work.

dgrin91 5y ago

For low income workers less taxes won't really help. They already get very low taxes (sometimes none) and a low percentage of a low salary is not a significant impact. If we change that from low percentage to very low percentage the impact wont really change. So low income workers won't be able to choose to work less hours.

thfuran 5y ago
>and a low percentage of a low salary is not a significant impact That seems wildly inaccurate. If my employer secretly decreased my salary by ten percent, it could take me months to even notice. If someone is living paycheck to paycheck, a few percent actually matters.

vnchr 5y ago

Work remotely and come to Florida.