What is a fair tax rate for people on over $1m?

[Aethec]

Why would anyone earn one million dollars per year?

What can one human do that is so important it justifies paying him/her $1m?

[simplezz]

Millionaires don't pay taxes didn't you know? They use shell companies and because laws are skewed in favour of corporations, they hardly pay a penny.

[DrakeN2k]

Why would anyone earn one million dollars per year?

What can one human do that is so important it justifies paying him/her $1m?

Super hero :p

[JonathanMarston]

Why would anyone earn one million dollars per year?

What can one human do that is so important it justifies paying him/her $1m?

Well, let's take the CEO of WalMart, Mike Duke who gets paid about $18 million / year. WalMart has 2.2 million employees. He is responsible for keeping WalMart going so that 2.2 million people have a job to go to every day. He doesn't get paid for what he physically does, as much as for the responsibility that he takes on. WalMart has a yearly revenue of $447 billion. At $18 million / year, they're paying Mike Duke 0.004% of their yearly revenue.

I don't know about you, but I'd gladly pay 0.004% of my yearly income if someone else would take the responsibility of making sure my household kept running smoothly...

[vanx]

Why would anyone earn one million dollars per year?

What can one human do that is so important it justifies paying him/her $1m?

Why should a private company justify salaries of its employees to anyone other than management/board of directors/shareholders?

[ANON86364]

Why would anyone earn one million dollars per year?

What can one human do that is so important it justifies paying him/her $1m?

This is absolutely scary thinking.

[shakey]

Well, let's take the CEO of WalMart, Mike Duke who gets paid about $18 million / year. WalMart has 2.2 million employees. He is responsible for keeping WalMart going so that 2.2 million people have a job to go to every day. He doesn't get paid for what he physically does, as much as for the responsibility that he takes on. WalMart has a yearly revenue of $447 billion. At $18 million / year, they're paying Mike Duke 0.004% of their yearly revenue.

I don't know about you, but I'd gladly pay 0.004% of my yearly income if someone else would take the responsibility of making sure my household kept running smoothly...

Actually, Mike Duke has hired a good amount of other people who do all the micromanaging. He just handles the bigger choices, bank roll, and bigger bonuses. Normally, the higher up in a good company you go, the less you actually start having to do. Mike Duke isn't walmart. They just buy bulk crap to sell at a good price. Walmart is comprised of a ton of underpaid people, all helping those at the top get richer, while those under them stay in the same place they have been. Business models like this don't actually help your agruments, as it only helps show why there is such a huge gap in classes. Those who make the company what it is, the whole back bone you could say, get paid the lowest amount possible, while those at the top, get paid in sums that most can't even imagine.

[123456789A]

I think Bill Gates should decide how much millionaires pay in taxes.

[ANON86364]

Actually, Mike Duke has hired a good amount of other people who do all the micromanaging. He just handles the bigger choices, bank roll, and bigger bonuses. Normally, the higher up in a good company you go, the less you actually start having to do. Mike Duke isn't walmart. They just buy bulk crap to sell at a good price. Walmart is comprised of a ton of underpaid people, all helping those at the top get richer, while those under them stay in the same place they have been. Business models like this don't actually help your agruments, as it only helps show why there is such a huge gap in classes. Those who make the company what it is, the whole back bone you could say, get paid the lowest amount possible, while those at the top, get paid in sums that most can't even imagine.

I'm pretty sure that the people considering Wal-Mart a career are the ones who certainly won't be starting up any business of their own. Ever. It's people like Mike Duke who actually create jobs for those who don't have the capacity to do any better. Believe it or not, there are people who just don't have the know-how to do anything else. It's the ones who do that should bear the fruits of their "labor". After all, he is employing 2.2 million people and effectively helping the economy. Guess what happens when the top makes more money? They open more stores... and employ more people...

[ccoltmanm]

Leave it up to individual states. Federal taxes are one thing.

[Stoffel]

I think Bill Gates should decide how much millionaires pay in taxes.

I think a lot of rich people would not be happy with what he comes up with

[thejohnnyq]

First off who's money is it to start with?

First off, If you earn it, you should be able to hold on to it. As much as possible, if you don't believe in this, then start giving all your **** away right now.

Second off, everyone, needs to have skin in the game, not just the rich, not just the middle class.

Third off, Taxes should be tired on types of income. Income earned or worked for should be taxed different then income from investments specially if that money was previous taxed. There is no reason to re-tax the source several times, this is just plain stupid and shows nothing more then jealous on the part of those whom are don't have and want.

A flat tax with a base income level is level is most likely the best option. Tiered with set deductions for number of people in household. At the bottom there needs to be no tax credits, and everyone pays at least $10 in taxes.

[shakey]

I'm pretty sure that the people considering Wal-Mart a career are the ones who certainly won't be starting up any business of their own. Ever. It's people like Mike Duke who actually create jobs for those who don't have the capacity to do any better. Believe it or not, there are people who just don't have the know-how to do anything else. It's the ones who do that should bear the fruits of their "labor". After all, he is employing 2.2 million people and effectively helping the economy. Guess what happens when the top makes more money? They open more stores... and employ more people...

Opening more of the same job and creating more of the same job, does little for progression of a country when the wages are still so low for the ones who are even making that company work in the first place. But if you can't see the big picture already, and think that just making jobs is all we need, then this is a lost cause.

[ANON86364]

Opening more of the same job and creating more of the same job, does little for progression of a country when the wages are still so low for the ones who are even making that company work in the first place. But if you can't see the big picture already, and think that just making jobs is all we need, then this is a lost cause.

So what you're saying is we need more people like Mike Duke to influence other industries. Surely we get there by taking more of their money.

If paying unskilled labor more is what you want, then raise minimum wage. But really, unskilled labor the likes of people who work at Wal-Mart aren't going to be hugely successful simply because they don't have the skill to do so. Otherwise, they wouldn't be working at Wal-Mart.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Opening more of the same job and creating more of the same job, does little for progression of a country when the wages are still so low for the ones who are even making that company work in the first place. But if you can't see the big picture already, and think that just making jobs is all we need, then this is a lost cause.

So you're essentially saying that it's pointless creating more of those jobs? Yeah, that's a good plan. :huh:

[ghostwind]

This is a rather poor way to look at it..

So I make 40,000 and pay 20% = 10,000 ..you make 1m and pay 100gs ? .. I'm left with 30 to survive while you are left with 900gs without giving back anything to the society that's helping you get rich. Progressive tax system is the only way to go to maintain fair transfer of wealth and keep society stable... You can pay a higher percentage of pay security to keep your property and money safe because nobody is going to sit happily losing all their money while it's easier for the rich to keep their money.

The point she is trying to make (aside from the poor math skills) is that richer people taxed at the same rate as someone who makes less money will have significantly more disposable income at his or her disposal than the poorer person. Even at a tax rate of 50%, a millionaire would still earn 500 000 dollars. which is still 16,5 times more than someone earning 40000 dollars, at a tax rate of 25%. The fact of the matter is that even with a lower tax rate than the millionaire, this amount takes a proportionally larger amount of money out of the disposable income of the lower wage earner than the millionaire taxed at twice the rate. Furthermore, she is not saying that a millionaire should not get to keep more money. if this were the case, the tax rate on the millionaire would be sufficiently high enough to ensure that he or she earned no more than the lower wage earner.

[shakey]

So you're essentially saying that it's pointless creating more of those jobs? Yeah, that's a good plan. :huh:

It's pointless to have 1 billion walmarts open up, if it only means people will still be living on as minimum of minimum wage goes. But if we do your reasoning, its good enough to have everyone at the bottom with a few at the top... Do people really not understand the situation? Have all the jobs in the world come available... but if the pay doesn't ever change for the workers, and only for those at the top, the problems will never go away. I really hope you are not entering this debate with such small views....

[shakey]

The point she is trying to make (aside from the poor math skills) is that richer people taxed at the same rate as someone who makes less money will have significantly more disposable income at his or her disposal than the poorer person. Even at a tax rate of 50%, a millionaire would still earn 500 000 dollars. which is still 16,5 times more than someone earning 40000 dollars, at a tax rate of 25%. The fact of the matter is that even with a lower tax rate than the millionaire, this amount takes a proportionally larger amount of money out of the disposable income of the lower wage earner than the millionaire taxed at twice the rate. Furthermore, she is not saying that a millionaire should not get to keep more money. if this were the case, the tax rate on the millionaire would be sufficiently high enough to ensure that he or she earned no more than the lower wage earner.

Reasoning wont get you far on this site anymore.

[Astra.Xtreme]

It's pointless to have 1 billion walmarts open up, if it only means people will still be living on as minimum of minimum wage goes. But if we do your reasoning, its good enough to have everyone at the bottom with a few at the top... Do people really not understand the situation? Have all the jobs in the world come available... but if the pay doesn't ever change for the workers, and only for those at the top, the problems will never go away. I really hope you are not entering this debate with such small views....

If you look at the actual issues going on in this country, there are tons of jobs open, but people are either too stupid or they aren't qualified. It's a huge huge problem. If there were more "Walmart" jobs out there that a monkey do, maybe more people would get off their unemployed asses and get a job.

Would opening a "billion" Walmart's be bad? Probably. But would building them in expanding populated areas be bad? Absolutely not. Jobs are jobs and there's no logic or reason to say creating more of these jobs is bad.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Reasoning wont get you far on this site anymore.

We are so so sorry that everybody doesn't agree with your "reasoning"...

[BoredBozirini]

If you look at the actual issues going on in this country, there are tons of jobs open, but people are either too stupid or they aren't qualified. It's a huge huge problem. If there were more "Walmart" jobs out there that a monkey do, maybe more people would get off their unemployed asses and get a job.

Would opening a "billion" Walmart's be bad? Probably. But would building them in expanding populated areas be bad? Absolutely not. Jobs are jobs and there's no logic or reason to say creating more of these jobs is bad.

So the problem is stupidity and you propose fixing the stupid people unemployed with Walmart jobs?

Shouldn't the fix be better education?

[Ambroos]

I think we need a completely different system that warrants a good quality of life for everyone while still bringing in enough money.

A set amount of money each year/month is always completely tax-free, for everyone. This should be enough to cover living in the most basic of ways. Then starting there everything above that (let's say everything between ?500 and ?2000 each month) should be taxed at 20%. Everything between ?2000 and ?4000 each month should be taxed at 35%. Everything over ?50000 per month should be taxed at 75%.

For example. I think it's the only really fair way to be honest. Fixed percentages aren't good.

[123456789A]

I think a lot of rich people would not be happy with what he comes up with

I know, that's why BillG is so awesome. BillG for president!

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

For now, until we get a different solution. Our tax system is currently based on income brackets, the higher the bracket your in, the higher your tax, and it scales up.

The problem is it stops around 380K I believe. Extended it out to cover all the way up to at least a billion.

That's not saying there tax deductions, loop holes that exist in this system already however.

[Astra.Xtreme]

So the problem is stupidity and you propose fixing the stupid people unemployed with Walmart jobs?

Shouldn't the fix be better education?

Ideally yes, but people have to take it on themselves to get educated.

The education system in this country is terrible and the top priority of any president should be to fix that. It really is killing us. Separate issue though.

But since unemployment is so high and people are so uneducated, it's better to give them any job rather than an unemployment check.