Quote :

"If you are a full grown adult and making the minimum wage, you are doing it wrong. There are plenty of opportunities to better yourself over time or move to places that will offer better wages or lower cost of living for the same pay. Stagnating under the same circumstances and waiting for the government to force a change to make your life better (at the cost of the middle class) is pitiful. Should the government help families in need like this? Absolutely, but only to a certain extent."

You're bringing up a discussion that's not really relevant to this topic. The question here with the sales tax is, do you really want to put the state tax burden on those people? You're just going to increase the burden they put on society and decrease the oppurtunities you talk about for them to better themselves. If they have to work 2 full time minimium wage jobs just to survive, what oppurtunities are realistically open to them?

And just FYI, sales taxes hurt the middle class as well considering they regressively place the state tax burden on those who make less.

[Edited on January 11, 2013 at 2:28 PM. Reason : ]

1/11/2013 2:26:51 PM

Poor people are poor for 2 main reasons:

1) they are dumb and lazy
2) our society is heavily nepotistic

No one would argue that Romney or Bush didn't have an easier life than the average person because their parents were wealthy and well connected. They could have easily been dumb and lazy, and still wildly successful.

We already offer practically free grade school education to all poor people, to hopefully make them less dumb and less lazy.

Why don't we also take steps to help curb nepotism in reasonable ways?

1/11/2013 2:58:26 PM

that, in part, is the theory behind estate taxes.

1/11/2013 3:07:01 PM

Quote :

"Tennessee has this system, and they are doing quite well from what it looks like."

Wrong. Tennessee also has income taxes on dividends and interest. And as far as "quite well" I'd remind you that Tennessee has the 10th highest poverty rate of all States, and the 3rd highest food stamp enrollment rate of any State, at just under 1 in 5.



[Edited on January 11, 2013 at 3:52 PM. Reason : .]

1/11/2013 3:47:45 PM

I, too, came to ask what metric Tennessee was doing "well" in

1/11/2013 3:55:15 PM

Maybe Republicans think you grow the middle class by outlawing abortion, so middle class families have lots of kids? Idk. It certainly doesn't grow because lower class people move into it, those lazy pieces of shit.

1/11/2013 3:56:59 PM

Where does Tennessee fall for how much Federal money they receive?

(I'm not making a point, I don't know. I'd assume top 20 though?)

1/11/2013 4:06:05 PM

19-20 I think

1/11/2013 4:08:50 PM

Is that based on straight per-capita or received/paid ratio

1/11/2013 4:11:42 PM

19th; $1.27 received per $1 paid



http://visualizingeconomics.com/blog/2010/02/17/federal-taxes-paidreceived-for-each-state

1/11/2013 5:38:28 PM

DCs ratio is 6

1/11/2013 6:23:27 PM

Wait the place that has most of our federal buildings and federal government gets a lot of federal money?

No shit?

Idiot

1/11/2013 6:33:10 PM

>state
>washington dc

that part of the graph is BS anyways

1/11/2013 6:36:28 PM

So... for years now Republicans have been saying you can't increase income taxes on the rich because they'll just leave.

How is this different? Why won't the rich simply buy things from out of state? Amazon is about to make a killing in Louisiana.

1/12/2013 8:16:42 AM

poor people don't have internet.

1/12/2013 10:02:27 PM

Briefly saw an article that the NC GOP is proposing similar. Getting rid of income tax and raising tax on groceries to 8%.

[Edited on January 18, 2013 at 1:20 PM. Reason : Oops this was in the ncga thread]

1/18/2013 1:16:19 PM

I hope it doesn't eat into Rose's profits /art pope

1/18/2013 1:21:11 PM

Whoop wrong page

[Edited on January 18, 2013 at 10:25 PM. Reason : Tgygt]

1/18/2013 10:23:12 PM

Dude claimed an exorcism he performed cured someones cancer, after that, how can one be bound by math any more?

1/18/2013 10:45:12 PM

bttt

Obama now more popular than Jindal in Louisiana after people learn what killing the income tax would mean

story:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/07/us-usa-politics-jindal-idUSBRE93604I20130407

shortformblog summary:

Quote :

"CAUSE: In recent weeks, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican who is expected to run for president in 2016, has been pushing a bold tax plan in his state that would eliminate income taxes entirely on individuals and corporations, in an effort to make the state more desirable for businesses. To make up for the loss of income, the state’s sales taxes would jump by 56 percent, the cigarette tax would jump significantly and a number of tax loopholes would be closed. REACTION Jindal’s popularity has tanked. With a 38 percent approval rating in the state, President Barack Obama is now a more popular figure in the conservative Louisiana. Why’s that? Well, two reasons: First, the sales tax increase is seen as hitting the poor more than the rich (though Jindal says there will be tax credits available for low-income residents); and second, many residents see it as a transparent scheme to shore up Jindal’s credentials with conservatives outside of Louisiana before running for president. Many of those polled also note that he’s been out of the state a lot lately Read more at http://shortformblog.com/post/47373701163/bobby-jindal-income-tax#gH8UM3yHigIQO8l5.99 "

4/7/2013 4:33:51 PM

Jindal's personal ambitions are all but evident in his actions. It's embarrassing to watch. His popularity drop is encouraging but I hope it sticks. This guy is one step behind Cantor in douchiness IMO.

4/7/2013 9:29:43 PM

Behind? Bobby 'Exorcism' Jindal?

4/8/2013 8:53:40 AM

He gained some cred for calling GOP the stupid party lol.

4/8/2013 12:51:51 PM