if walmart paid a living wage

[Rudeboyelvis]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

I don't think the current tax rates on investments are high relative to income at all. In fact, they are much too low, relative to income. Yet another way the rich stack the deck. They pay 20 percent tax for sitting around while money their great-grandad made ensures they don't have to do anything with their lives.

Lower tax rates on capital gains is merely welfare for the already wealthy.

My fault - I worded my thought improperly. The point I was trying to make is that when saving for retirement most financial advisers will recommend investing pre-tax dollars; the wisdom of course being that you will be taxed less on it in retirement (as you make a lot less money, the taxable rate will be much lower when you are not accruing an annual income).

My point was that this seems logical now, but in 15-20 years, well after the scale has been tipped (between workers paying into the income tax base vs. those not) the tax rates will have to rise exponentially to pay the massive debt + fact that 65 -70% of the people in the country will be retired, on welfare and not paying into the system, or on a government funded disability.

The number of people on disability, as Jim pointed out in a previous thread, is at an all time high. Sure, a lot of this is fraud, but alot of this has to do with 10 years of maiming our kids (physically and mentally) in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Our defense is spending is 37% of our GNP. By comparison, China is 11% and Russia is similar.

The point of all of this is that we are beyond any chance of correcting and fixing our problems. We will have no choice at this juncture but to eventually devolve into a sort of Marxist Apocalypse where we will be taxed at rates that will compare to most Socialist regimes, though we will reap none of the benefits (healthcare, retirement, etc.)

So you may be ahead paying 25-28% tax on it now as an adjunct to your income, rather than a flat 70-75% of it in 20 years.