12clicks

"This is a very simple way to understand the tax laws," says Professor
Davies. "Read on, as it does make you think!" Here's his analogy:

"Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every
day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten 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 would pay $7;
the eighth pays $12;
the ninth would pay $18;
and the tenth man, the richest, would pay $59.
"That's what they decided to do. The ten 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 am going to reduce the cost of your
daily meal by $20. So now dinner for the ten only cost $80.00.

"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--the paying customers? How could they divvy up the
$20
windfall so that everyone would get his '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:

as before, the first four men paid nothing;
now the fifth man also paid nothing;
the sixth man now paid $2;
the seventh paid $5;
the eighth man paid $9;
the ninth man paid $12;
leaving the tenth 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 men began to
compare their savings. 'I only got a dollar out of the $20 reduction,'
declared the sixth man, but he, pointing to the tenth. '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 tenth and beat him up. The next night he
didn't show up for dinner, 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 now Fifty-Two Dollars short of paying the bill.
Imagine that!

And that, boys and girls, journalists, and college instructors, is how
the
tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most
benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being
wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore.

"Where would that leave the rest? Unfortunately, most taxing authorities
anywhere cannot seem to grasp this rather straightforward logic."


Sadly, he is right, it seems that few, if any, Democrats in Congress have
grasped the concept.

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