Electoral Reform

[kandrathe]

I disagree with two things kandrathe. First, usually (maybe I'm wrong and in your case this is different) the lowest incomes (or people without jobs) usually don't vote. In Holland a lot of right wing people say that immigrants are voting for left wing parties and the left wing parties try to be nicer to immigrants etc. etc. while in fact voting percentage among immigrants is very low, and if they vote they often have a tendency to vote for the christian conservative parties (because christian and muslim conservatives share many opinions). So I might be wrong but I find it hard to believe that what you say is true. I thought it was more a republican theme during elections to say that taxes should go down?

Second; I agree with higher taxes for higher incomes for the following reason. Higher incomes profit hugely from economic prosperity while they don't suffer so much when there are bad economic times. The economy is also based on people paying taxes. I mean pharmaceutical companies for example all go belly up when there are no health plans for people. So in fact a small contribution to a health insurance for poor people makes another group very rich....because they can sell stuff to them.

From my experience of poll watching the same percentages of population votes regardless of income status. Our turnouts and civic involvement levels are low, but low consistently. A motivated minority and apathetic majority can greatly sway the outcome of an election. At least until the next election cycle.

The dirty little secret is that you and most people in the world think that rich people work and earn lots of income. The way that taxation works (at least in the US) is that a very very wealthy person only needs to earn as much income as they want to consume. So, they choose the method by which they will pay the lowest tax and use that to convert an asset into income. They might pay some taxes, but it is a very very small fraction in the growth of their asset portfolio. You only pay capital gains taxes when you convert an asset into income. Understanding these mechanisms of capitalism is the key to transforming yourself from a lowly wage earner doing time for the man, to rich capitalist pig.

The poor and the wealthy share common interests in how they are treated by the government. Neither are real wage earners, so neither care about income taxes. Neither want to pay sales or property taxes. So, my advice to you middle classes is to go to San Francisco or New York (highest wage cities) during your most productive years and live frugally, then retire in Florida (a no sales tax, low taxation state) or next door to Doc if you'd like to raise fainting goats or go do some target shooting once in awhile for fun.

But, to offer an argument to my own hypothesis; If the government taxes income, then they profit most by encouraging and maintaining the highest productivity possible. This also means they should desire to keep the most number of people employed at the highest wage possible (note: this might explain the crush for higher and higher minimum wage). But, from a wage earner perspective progressive taxes become like leveling in Diablo II. Every level requires an even higher income to get to "rich enough". For most of us, rich enough means that we can afford to stop working at sometime before we become too decrepit to work and die of old age.

The wealthy begin at the end point, and so could care less if the middle classes battle politically for "who" pay's for the excesses of government. Some of those wealthy are on one side of the political spectrum, and some are on the other. The wage earners bear the burden, and the wealthy profit either way. Those too poor to contribute are used as political pawns pandered to by both sides. Now, I am not an anti-capitalist, but if you are going to pay the burden of government by taxing incomes you should understand the reality of taxation politics.

We are ruled by the wealthy, and they choose the puppets who don the mantles of political parties.