Romney: 47% of Americans are losers, don't care about 'em

[dps]

I'm guessing he posted in the wrong thread but I wonder what the right one was.  Do we have a biological racism thread going?

Probably, this being Languish and all, though most of our bigotry here is of the cultural and religious type, not blatant racism.

[sbr]

I'm guessing he posted in the wrong thread but I wonder what the right one was.  Do we have a biological racism thread going?

Probably, this being Languish and all, though most of our bigotry here is of the cultural and religious type, not blatant racism.

Roman barbarian thread.

http://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,8399.msg477157.html#msg477157

[The Brain]

So if you make a point that is germane to two threads you're not allowed to just copy/paste?

[dps]

So if you make a point that is germane to two threads you're not allowed to just copy/paste?

Since when does spellus make a point that's germane to any thread?

[Eddie Teach]

I thought his point was that he was Germane.

[Syt]

I thought his point was that he was Germane.

Hey now, we Germans made many mistakes in our history, but Spellus isn't one of them!

[Admiral Yi]

I's just the first time I've seen that caveat mentioned, probably as it didn't apply to our previous wager.  I'll happily go 150:50 if you like.

Deal.

As to Squeelus, he's definitely Tito.

[The Minsky Moment]

Was a little surprised to learn that Dutch came up with the Earned Income Tax Credit.  I had thought it was Bubba's idea.

It was Milton Friedman's idea, IIRC

[Rasputin]

Of course you are, you're the intended audience for Mitt's speech when he gave it.

Damn those seniors and military people and disabled people and working poor for not wanting to find a way to get out of their non-income tax paying ways.

do you really think america has 140,000,000 seniors and disabled people or are you just a full time troll now?

are you not the least bit bothered that the class of federal income tax payer has been reduced to just 53% of the population and there are calls to tax these people more?

do you not understand that when you raise taxes on a guy that can chose who to hire and fire and to whom to give raises or ask for salary or benefit decreases that in the end you actually pass the pain right back to those 47%?

or instead are you just too busy being outraged that mitt only paid 14% of his gross income to notice that that means mitt paid 2,800,000 in income taxes to a bloated federal government that cannot get out of its own way?

[Grey Fox]

If 14% was 2.8 mil, then he could afford 35%.

Job creator is just another term for exploiter.

[The Minsky Moment]

are you not the least bit bothered that the class of federal income tax payer has been reduced to just 53% of the population and there are calls to tax these people more?

I don't see what is so talismanic about income taxation as opposed to other forms but there is a simple solution to this concern that doesn't involve soaking the working poor: broaden the income tax and ditch the payroll taxes.

[Gups]

Would someone please explain the difference between payroll and income taxes to an ignorant furriner?

[Habbaku]

Would someone please explain the difference between payroll and income taxes to an ignorant furriner?

Payroll taxes are things like FICA : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Insurance_Contributions_Act_tax  They cover Medicare, Social Security and other contributions.  These aren't progressive and, instead, are really a form of flat income-tax.

Income taxes are our form of progressive, multi-bracket taxes on earnings that scale based upon income and are levied on top of FICA taxes.

[crazy canuck]

are you not the least bit bothered that the class of federal income tax payer has been reduced to just 53% of the population and there are calls to tax these people more?

I don't see what is so talismanic about income taxation as opposed to other forms but there is a simple solution to this concern that doesn't involve soaking the working poor: broaden the income tax and ditch the payroll taxes.

Yep, it seems payroll taxes are the way governments of every stripe in every jurisdiction take money while while being champions of low taxation in the name of job creation.

If government really wants to lower the cost of employing more people that is definitely the place to start.  With all due respect to Rasputin, I highly doubt that a "job creator" makes decisions about employees based on their own personal income tax situation.  They are making on the basis of the cost/benefit to the bottom line of their business and payroll taxes are a huge cost in that calculation.

[dps]

Would someone please explain the difference between payroll and income taxes to an ignorant furriner?

Payroll taxes are things like FICA : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Insurance_Contributions_Act_tax  They cover Medicare, Social Security and other contributions.  These aren't progressive and, instead, are really a form of flat income-tax.

Income taxes are our form of progressive, multi-bracket taxes on earnings that scale based upon income and are levied on top of FICA taxes.

Payroll taxes aren't really flat though--they're regressive, because they're capped at the first $100,000 or so of gross income (see the link in Habbaku's post for the exact dollar figure and more details).