Originally Posted by Robbie

Tonight at every strip club in town...some girls will make $2000, some will make $200. They ALL will pay exactly $125 to the house.
It's "fair" because they both get the same things for their money (bouncers, dj, bar tipout)

If we both paid the same amount of taxes but you were poor, you would still get the better deal because you would probably be getting far more back than what you put in in social services and welfare and food stamps...whereas the rich guy doesn't get any of that.

If you and I had a business together and we both worked on commission and were required to put money back into the business account each week...and you made more than I did...would you be okay with me putting in LESS than you did? Even though we would both profit equally from that pot of money being returned to the company?

No.

I can't think of any circumstance where one person having to pay more is acceptable EXCEPT with taxation.

But that really isn't the problem...the problem is the federal govt. is spending 7 million dollars a MINUTE.
Slow that shit down to a sane level and taxes are no longer needed to be high for anyone.

Originally Posted by DTK

That said, i do agree that current spending is not sustainable. The military budget needs to come down drastically, but in an orderly fashion. Cutting the DoD budget in half overnight would be economically disastrous. Also, did you know we spend $50 Billion per year on the stupid, corporate-profit motivated, utterly fucking pointless War on (some) Drugs??

Here's the immediate problem: history has shown time and again that austerity in tough economic times ALWAYS leads to disaster. Fortunately, we currently have a once in a lifetime opportunity to borrow money for virtually nothing (adjusted for inflation, it's actually free money) so we can continue to stimulate an economy that desperately needs it.