Here's the reply to your next teabagger email about taxes.

[TalkingDog]

Why do I feel like I don’t have any money?
Why does the government keep asking me for more?


• Because real average earnings have not increased for most of us in 50 years

• Because, since the 1960’s, income taxes have consistently gone up for the middle class* and way down for the upper class.

Our taxes have gone up because the government keeps using them as tax bailouts for the rich: In the 1960’s, the richest multi- multi- millionaires paid a 72% income tax rate. Their poor cousins, the millionaires, paid 45% income. The rest of us in 1960 paid about 15%.

Meanwhile the rich are earning more and paying less in taxes. Now the richest pays about the same in income tax as the average middle class guy.

• The average CEO’s income increased 235% over the last 2 decades.

• People working minimum wage saw income drop almost 10%.


Think about it this way: Let’s say in America there are only 100 people and 100 Apple Pies are all the money.

• ONE GUY would take 33 ½ of those pies.

• 9 people would take 38 of those pies

• 40 people would get 26 pies

• In the middle class 39 of us would be forced to split 2 ½ pies between us.

• 11 would get crumbs or none at all.

Despite the idea that anyone can make it if they work hard enough, there is very little chance of you or your children rising to the upper middle class

Mostly you are working hard at low wage jobs so the rich can get richer and pay less in taxes, while you pay more.
.

At a 1979 rate, the top 1% have seen their income more than double. The bottom 90% have seen their already small portion shrink.


*Income tax levels dropped to historic lows for the middle class in mid 2009.

Taken from:
http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#

[another saigon]

1. nothing beats a chart to show the haves

and the have nots.

[TalkingDog]

4. I like charts too...

But I've figured out that the relatives that send me those emails don't really understand how they work......
Charts are hard.


But they do send lots of wordy emails. With small words. And short sentences.

[zanana1]

2. I'm getting no result when I click on the link. nt

[TalkingDog]

3. Sorry, it's working for me....

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#


businessinsider.com 15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

[CTyankee]

5. aw, hell, they'll just say the poor are lazy. If they worked harder,they'd be rich.

And if you ask them if they're rich, they'll probably say they are...

[Warpy]

6. The snappy comeback to that one is

"so why aren't YOU rich?"

[CTyankee]

7. You know, Warpy, I did that (sort of) to a former coworker.

She gave a little laugh and said she had made some poor choices in her life and she knew she was at fault. It was really stunning and a bit depressing that she was taking it on herself like that. She had married 3 awful men and wound up poorer and in worse shape every time. When I had that conversation with her she was on food stamps and told me that a friend of hers had started prostituting herself for money. I didn't know what to say...honestly, these people have such terrible lives and they just beat themselves up?

god, this gets me down...

[Warpy]

8. True, I limit that particular comeback to arrogant puffballs

who swear they all have the answers.

As for your acquaintance, all I can say is that I've come to the conclusion we've all done the best we can with what we've had to work with and the limited choices we've been offered. Some of us didn't start out with much to work with and some of us only found rotten alternatives and an unhappy few have been stuck with both. That last number has been growing since liberals went out of party and the rich started to make war against us openly.

I know when I'm tempted to beat myself up, I just remind myself of what my alternatives were at the time. I usually made the right choice even if it turned out badly. The other choices would likely have been worse.

[CTyankee]

9. You are right. Far too often I find myself doing this to myself.

"If only..." is the rut I get myself into. I need to stop doing that.

My guess is that this woman clings to her right wing ideology as a kind of crutch, too soothe herself, almost a "self medication," the way a drinker drinks...

[JHB]

10. Here's the "sound bite" that I've used:

You can either favor those people trying to get ahead, or those who already are.


Some times things are going well enough that you can do both, but most of the time it's one or the other. And right now (and ever since Reagan), it's favoring the people who already are ahead.

[JHB]

11. Additional thought: the "top line"

Everytone understands the bottom line, but back in the 50's and 60s those with top incomes also had a "top line" to consider. If they were already dong well, if they wanted to squeeze more they had to weigh that against Uncle Sam taking a big chunk of it. So they'd stay in control of their money in other ways, like reinvesting it in their business and using more carrots and fewer sticks with their employees. Or keeping their money in a profitable business instead of liquidating it and trying for more on Wall Street.

Then the Reagan tax cuts came along and removed that from their consideration, especially when they "ran the numbers". No penalty for gouging for everything they could get, out of both customers and employees. Gambling on what stocks would do was worth more than "slow and steady" building asset value in a company. And no penalty for moving jobs to Mexico, India, or China.

Back then, calling the high-end taxes "socialism" looked ridiculous because the Soviets were sitting there. But now? Policies that were commonplace old hat during the Eisenhower days get called "communist" today. Were we "communists" back then? And who were the people who claimed we were? The ranting nutbars, that's who.