Re: Taxes Blah
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yeah so if someone puts in 500k in their lifetime, gets 250k back... the other 250k goes to the poor, who get a lot more than they put in. it's more of an income transfer system than a 'forced saving system', although the argument could be made for either. about 40% of gov spending is transferring from rich --> poor
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Exactly, which is why I have been using the qualifier "partial". [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] You get some of the tax back, but not all.
I can't quote numbers here b/c I don't know what they are exctly but a lot of the transfer with Social Security is from people yet to get benefits to those who received benefits in the past. (Basically because people live so much longer than they used to and the rules haven't sufficiently changed to reflect this.)
Transfers from rich to poor are much stronger via income taxes. Estate tax also though that's a pretty minor tax overall, unless of course you are seriously rich.
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I need to find the reference, but there was a large, comprehensive study published not too long ago that provided a surprising conclusion - the US is already a flat tax country. When you add up all the various taxes it turns out everyone pays about 40% regardless of income, age or location.
The whole Fair Tax initiative is a bit of a dumb lark. They are trying to accomplish that which is already in place.
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