Quote from: AyeYo on July 02, 2011, 12:53:11 PM

Quote from: LastBattle on July 02, 2011, 04:10:52 AM

Quote from: AyeYo on July 02, 2011, 02:21:06 AM

Quote from: freespirit on July 01, 2011, 11:02:07 PM

Quote from: AyeYo on July 01, 2011, 10:00:23 PM

Quote from: freespirit on July 01, 2011, 08:31:38 PM

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Not sustainable? Based on what? Prove it. It's been sustaining just fine.

On the fact that sooner or later you run out of other people's money. Economically active people and businesses leave the country for jurisdictions with lower taxation (UK for example) being fed up with ever-growing number of welfare recipients. What kind of future does this country have?

That myth has been busted for awhile now

Enjoy...

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/02/quelle-surprise-tax-increases-on-rich-do-not-lead-to-exodus.html

It's almost as comparing apples to oranges. Taxation differences between US states is incomparable to that of semi-socialist European countries.

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http://reason.com/archives/2011/04/29/the-truth-about-taxes-and-the

From the link above:

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The general conclusion is that moderate tax increases on the rich, even if no neighboring jurisdictions follow suit, is unlikely to lead to much in the way of emigration.

Squirming again? Or should I say twisting facts?

Nope, sorry. Your argument is that higher taxes drive the rich away, see...

Quote from: freespirit on July 01, 2011, 08:31:38 PM

Economically active people and businesses leave the country for jurisdictions with lower taxation (UK for example)

That's simply not true, mostly because wealthy people aren't stupid and they understand that you have to pay to play. You want to live in a nice society? You're going to pay higher taxes for it. You want people to actually be health and alive enough (not to mention have enough disposable income) to buy your products? You're going to have to subsidize them. One hand washes the other. The rich understand why they pay more in taxes. It's the igornant poor (like yourself) that are the ones crying for lower taxes on the rich.

If the rich want to be taxed higher, then why don't they donate rather than get "taxed"? Can't they do so on their own without dragging others in with them?

Because the rich aren't stupid. Everyone pays their share. No one in their right mind is going to let people benefit from a system without contributing to it, which is why we force you to pay taxes even though you don't understand the benefits you reap from it.

You missed my point. Oh well.

The "rich" are not a single group, just like "the poor" and "the blacks". They are composed of many individuals, each with their own goals and abilities, and many come out of supporting higher taxes in better shape because they get subsidies, or because they can survive the taxes and a competitor can't, allowing them to make up the difference in market share. Look at Jim Rogers, Peter Schiff, the Kochs, and then look at Warren Buffet and George Soros. The aforementioned most definitely do NOT want to be taxed, and they are rich.

Anyway, the vast majority of people who pay taxes end up with a net loss. We get roads, but they are paid for (in my own country, at least) with absurdly high gas taxes, are excessively spread out, constantly have inconvenient maintenance, encourage pollution when alternate forms of transportation would be common if roads didn't get a blank check, and they aren't even of especially high quality. We get water plants, but they too aren't especially cheap and are often run by incompetent idiots who allow e. coli into the water or they attempt to make it cleaner by dumping fluoride into the water. We get electricity, but because of monopoly it is generally pretty expensive, not always reliable in bad weather, and requires that individuals be forced out of their homes at gunpoint, given paltry compensation, and forced to leave as the government destroys their house to build a power line. We get the military, which goes to foreign countries to bomb brown people that we have no good reason to bomb, and benefits absolutely no one except a handful of beneficiaries.