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The loss of innovation has zip to do with the Uber Economy. Try the fact that the middle class has been gutted by an unfair tax structure that shreds responsib

The loss of innovation has zip to do with the Uber Economy. Try the fact that the middle class has been gutted by an unfair tax structure that shreds responsibility away from the wealthy and corporations and has created peripheral damage in high college cost and low public school expectations. Bring back the tax rate where people making over 540k (the 1980 equivalent of the top tax rate $225,000) pay 50% on anything over that amount. In 1980 it was 70%. SEVENTY PERCENT. If we raise the top tax rate, we pay for infrastructure, college, teachers that can teach critical thinking instead of how to pass a test. The middle class can chill out and raise a family, take a vacation, save for retirement, and not live pay check to pay check. We rebuild the middle class. What happens if college goes back to a Pell grant and a part-time job cost? INNOVATION. People will have the ability to think freely and be creative. They won't be forced to figure out a career at 18-21 years old. Guess what else we do? We start paying down the national debt for once and actually reducing the debt ceiling. Our tax structure is insanely out of balance. That's the number one core problem in the United States.

alexashka 5y ago
> Our tax structure is insanely out of balance. That's the number one core problem in the United States. How do you know that? What are your qualifications?
- ChicagoDave 5y ago
  I can read and look up historical records. This isn’t rocket science. The combination of gutting our tax rates plus the GOP spending trillions on wars and tax breaks has killed the middle class. Look at everything Reagan did during his first 4 years. He decimated the middle class and waged war on black people and the poor.
solatic 5y ago
Excepting star-power labor (professional athletes, entertainers), most of the income in the upper tax brackets goes to the owners of capital. When stocks pay dividends, the dividends are taxed as income. If you raise taxes on upper-tax-bracket income, you just promote stock-based compensation instead: compensation in stock options (which are taxed as capital gains when realized, not income), stock buy-backs instead of issuing dividends (again, capital gains rather than income), etc. The long-term capital gains tax rate, for those in high tax brackets, is 20%. Go ahead, set the income tax rate for high tax brackets to seventy percent. It won't actually make a difference.
- ChicagoDave 5y ago
  Then you have to tax stock-based income. Any employee acquiring stocks must report it one time as income and get taxed on it. No capitalism back doors. However we figure it out, the wealthy need to pay more into annual tax revenues. A functioning society requires a large and happy middle class, affordable liberal arts college, strong K-12 teaching, and time off.
  - Ankaios 5y ago
    Another option to address the same basic issue is to fix estate taxes, which might be an easier fix. (Among other things, change the cost basis for the estate taxes to be the price when the asset was originally acquired, not the price when it was transferred to the inheritor.) Either way, I agree that it's critical to close the routes to avoiding taxes.
- datavirtue 5y ago
  Before the stock yields anything the corporation is taxed. To follow that, allowing unprofitable companies to be publicly traded is corruption. As others have mentioned above, we are also suffering from a lack of financial regulations.
odiroot 5y ago
> Try the fact that the middle class has been gutted by an unfair tax structure > Our tax structure is insanely out of balance. That's the number one core problem in the United States. This is actually even worse in many places in EU. I completely agree with your diagnosis and would also like to see your solution implemented. I have an impression, taxation here in Europe is used as a political tool to play middle class and lower class against each other. And whatever the crisis, the middle class is expected to foot the bill. All the while, the powers that be use handouts to lower class to pacify them (prevent a revolution?)
- Jensson 5y ago
  The huge difference is that in USA most of your taxes goes to the federation while in EU most of your taxes goes to your local authorities while EU gets very little of your money. People are more willing to pay taxes when they know it wont be sent thousands of kilometres away.
coffeeblack 5y ago
The current president had been holding a position of power in Washington for 50 years. Same is true for many other top politicians. As long as you vote in the same people over and over again, nothing will change.
- diordiderot 5y ago
  we have no choice. Only parties who support capital can muster the resources to run & win because of strategic voting made necessary by a first past the post voting system. All problems are down stream of voting rights, gerrymandering, and first past the post / non-proportional representation
  - coffeeblack 5y ago
    I don’t think that those are the problems. I think it’s the money from a tiny group of wealthy individuals. Limit that to no more than $1000 per natural person per year and make it illegal for entities that are not natural persons to contribute any money (PACs, companies, etc). Contribution to political campaigns should mostly be by time, volunteering to work for a campaign.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

alexashka 5y ago

> Our tax structure is insanely out of balance. That's the number one core problem in the United States. How do you know that? What are your qualifications?

ChicagoDave 5y ago
I can read and look up historical records. This isn’t rocket science. The combination of gutting our tax rates plus the GOP spending trillions on wars and tax breaks has killed the middle class. Look at everything Reagan did during his first 4 years. He decimated the middle class and waged war on black people and the poor.

solatic 5y ago

Excepting star-power labor (professional athletes, entertainers), most of the income in the upper tax brackets goes to the owners of capital. When stocks pay dividends, the dividends are taxed as income. If you raise taxes on upper-tax-bracket income, you just promote stock-based compensation instead: compensation in stock options (which are taxed as capital gains when realized, not income), stock buy-backs instead of issuing dividends (again, capital gains rather than income), etc. The long-term capital gains tax rate, for those in high tax brackets, is 20%. Go ahead, set the income tax rate for high tax brackets to seventy percent. It won't actually make a difference.

ChicagoDave 5y ago
Then you have to tax stock-based income. Any employee acquiring stocks must report it one time as income and get taxed on it. No capitalism back doors. However we figure it out, the wealthy need to pay more into annual tax revenues. A functioning society requires a large and happy middle class, affordable liberal arts college, strong K-12 teaching, and time off.
- Ankaios 5y ago
  Another option to address the same basic issue is to fix estate taxes, which might be an easier fix. (Among other things, change the cost basis for the estate taxes to be the price when the asset was originally acquired, not the price when it was transferred to the inheritor.) Either way, I agree that it's critical to close the routes to avoiding taxes.
datavirtue 5y ago
Before the stock yields anything the corporation is taxed. To follow that, allowing unprofitable companies to be publicly traded is corruption. As others have mentioned above, we are also suffering from a lack of financial regulations.

odiroot 5y ago

> Try the fact that the middle class has been gutted by an unfair tax structure > Our tax structure is insanely out of balance. That's the number one core problem in the United States. This is actually even worse in many places in EU. I completely agree with your diagnosis and would also like to see your solution implemented. I have an impression, taxation here in Europe is used as a political tool to play middle class and lower class against each other. And whatever the crisis, the middle class is expected to foot the bill. All the while, the powers that be use handouts to lower class to pacify them (prevent a revolution?)

Jensson 5y ago
The huge difference is that in USA most of your taxes goes to the federation while in EU most of your taxes goes to your local authorities while EU gets very little of your money. People are more willing to pay taxes when they know it wont be sent thousands of kilometres away.

coffeeblack 5y ago

The current president had been holding a position of power in Washington for 50 years. Same is true for many other top politicians. As long as you vote in the same people over and over again, nothing will change.

diordiderot 5y ago
we have no choice. Only parties who support capital can muster the resources to run & win because of strategic voting made necessary by a first past the post voting system. All problems are down stream of voting rights, gerrymandering, and first past the post / non-proportional representation
- coffeeblack 5y ago
  I don’t think that those are the problems. I think it’s the money from a tiny group of wealthy individuals. Limit that to no more than $1000 per natural person per year and make it illegal for entities that are not natural persons to contribute any money (PACs, companies, etc). Contribution to political campaigns should mostly be by time, volunteering to work for a campaign.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]