This is a matter of opinion.
I pay a little over 50% of my income in taxes. That’s excessive. It’s unfair to ask the top 5% to continually pick up for the other 95%
And how much more would you like to pay? Half your income? I don’t. I want a smaller government. Not a nanny state.
tswiftchair@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Again, I don’t know your personal situation, but the top federal income tax bracket is 37% for individuals making over $500k. States with the highest income tax get up to 10% for over $5 million (New York) or 12% for over $12.3 million (California). And, of course, there are other taxes like capital gains. My point is, those paying over 50% in taxes are generally well above the median income, which is $40k for individuals and $75k for households.
Again, this is an opinion and I would also like to point out that to be in the top 5% someone has to make $335k or more per year or have a net worth of ~$1 million or more. And those numbers still don’t generally put someone in the 50% tax range.
If I, or the majority of other Americans, paid half our income, we would be in dire straights. It would be near impossible for an individual to have adequate housing, food, and transportation just about anywhere in the country for $20k per year (or $37.5k for a household). However, someone can live very comfortably just about anywhere in the country for $315k per year (37% of $500k).
This is not currently an option. Neither Republicans or Democrats, Trump or Biden, are offering a meaningfully smaller government. In fact, depending on parameters, this hasn’t been an option for the last hundred years.
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 5 months ago
You also have to include social security and Medicare. They are a tax as well. We have property taxes as well. The list of taxes we have is insane. State is another 10%.
From my base pay of 17k a month. I end up with a little under 8k after taxes.
The stop asking me to do it.
Maybe you missed the platform most candidates were running on. It was the elimination of several government agencies. To me that’s a good start. The budget should also be tied to revenue. We need to balance the budget where expenditures do not exceed revenue.
tswiftchair@lemm.ee 5 months ago
We can go on and on about this forever. Your opinion is that taxes are too high.
To be clear, your position is you would rather many Americans be destitute so that you would pay fewer taxes.
Trump himself stated, “I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare.” He also added ~$8 trillion to the national debt in his previous term. Additionally, he said he would balance the budget prior to his first term and did not do it.
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 5 months ago
We need to spend less. It’s not that complicated. Our spending is out of control. The only required expenditure is the military.
Trump has said he will eliminate the department of education. That’s a first step in making the government smaller.