I did a search to see if it had been posted before and it had a couple of years ago, by? 12clicks.
I'd never seen it before but it was certainly an interesting analogy on taxes.
Sorry for the repost, but after 2 years it'd be interesting to see some other people's reactions........
Suppose that every day, 10 men go out for dinner. The bill for all 10 comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men ? the poorest ?would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18, and the 10th man ? the richest ? would pay $59. That?s what they
decided to do.
The 10 men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day the owner threw them a curve (in tax language, a tax cut).
?Since you are all such good customers,? he said, ?I?m going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20.?
So now dinner for the 10 only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free.
But what about the other six men, the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his own ?fair share??
The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody?s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being paid to eat their meal.
So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man?s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so the fifth man now paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the 10th man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59. Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the 10 customers began to compare their savings.
?I only got a dollar out of the $20,? declared the sixth man, pointing to the 10th. ?But he got $7!?
?Yeah, that?s right,? exclaimed the fifth man, ?I only saved a dollar too. It?s unfair that he got seven times more than me!?
?That?s true!? shouted the seventh man. ?Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!?
?Wait a minute,? yelled the first four men in unison. ?We didn?t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!?
The nine men surrounded the 10th and beat him up. The next night he didn?t show up for dinner (or, in the real world, he took his business out of the country), so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered a little late what was very important. They were $52 short of paying their bill!
Imagine that!
I'd never seen it before but it was certainly an interesting analogy on taxes.
Sorry for the repost, but after 2 years it'd be interesting to see some other people's reactions........
Suppose that every day, 10 men go out for dinner. The bill for all 10 comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men ? the poorest ?would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18, and the 10th man ? the richest ? would pay $59. That?s what they
decided to do.
The 10 men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day the owner threw them a curve (in tax language, a tax cut).
?Since you are all such good customers,? he said, ?I?m going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20.?
So now dinner for the 10 only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free.
But what about the other six men, the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his own ?fair share??
The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody?s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being paid to eat their meal.
So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man?s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so the fifth man now paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the 10th man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59. Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the 10 customers began to compare their savings.
?I only got a dollar out of the $20,? declared the sixth man, pointing to the 10th. ?But he got $7!?
?Yeah, that?s right,? exclaimed the fifth man, ?I only saved a dollar too. It?s unfair that he got seven times more than me!?
?That?s true!? shouted the seventh man. ?Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!?
?Wait a minute,? yelled the first four men in unison. ?We didn?t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!?
The nine men surrounded the 10th and beat him up. The next night he didn?t show up for dinner (or, in the real world, he took his business out of the country), so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered a little late what was very important. They were $52 short of paying their bill!
Imagine that!
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