Budget talks: This is getting nasty

No disrespect but this is BS. I've heard people argue that the progressive tax system robs your incentive to work. Please. Progressive taxes suck when you cross a threshold, but other than that, I don't see anybody lining up to trade tax rate for pay checks.

I think people have achieved great things by trying to solve problems or having a passion and talent for a certain subject, not because they're trying to get rich.

 

The possibility of wealth -- even unrealistic -- also has driven companies to trade quality for quantity (see many American car companies).

Ultimately, as a business owner, you reach a point in every industry where you can't possibly squeeze any more money out of it without worsening the product. Yes, the goal is to make money, but, depending on the industry, there are other important goals too.

Too bad that newspapers have collectively lost sight of this.

 

They worked hard at something all right. Sticking it to their customers/clients/patients/employees. That is the American way, after all.

 

Ask all the university medical centers that gobble up government grant dollars for research. See what they tell ya about the fruits of taxation.

You realize you're trying to have a policy debate with a guy entrenched in Lincoln/Douglas stylistics, right?

 

Oh? Who's running?

 

England, Germany, Switzerland and France, eh? Could you possibly be any more ignorant?

If Germany defaults, we'll all already be living in cardboard boxes. Switzerland is actively depressing its currency because it's rising so rapidly, given its safe-harbor status. And the U.K.'s 10-year bond yields are lower than those of the U.S. at the moment.

 

Besides that, Britain and Switzerland are not on the Euro. Currency fail.

 

I know what you believe. I'm asking what you can prove.

When Wal-Mart was founded in 1962, the corporate tax rate in this country was 52%. The top marginal tax rate for individuals was 91%.

 

Eugene Robinson:

So, has the left decided that all of the Bush/Obama tax cuts should be allowed to expire?

That will hit the middle class pretty hard.

Good luck with that.

 

Of course, if middle-class wages had grown at anything approaching a decent pace, then it wouldn't matter. But why should we expect companies to pay their workers respectably? Much easier to just hand them a government subsidy.

And IIRC, my paycheck went up by $1 a week when the first tax cut went into effect.

 

The interests that bankroll the Republican Party (and probably much of the Democratic Party too) don't want a middle class like we had 40 or 50 years ago. They want a modern day feudal society - a handful of ridiculously wealthy oligarchs at the top upon whom the remaining 99% of society are totally at their mercy.

The idea that either party is truly for the middle class is laughable.