Summary Of Frank's Inequality '

The American government has struggled with the issue of taxes and the budget for over a hundred years. Class conflict, adversarial political parties, and convoluted economic philosophies have resulted in a never-ending debate over taxation. The New York Times newspaper article, “Senate Panel Vote Backs Budget Plan”, from June 1993, discusses the current feelings of the time in regards to the budget and taxation. Moreover, the article mentions factors such as democrat-republican debate, trickle down economics, and high verse low taxes for the middle class. The issues discussed in this 1993 article differ only slightly from the taxation conversation of today. However, now in 2011, we face a budget crisis that threatens the American economy

However, raising taxes on the rich and corporations is not as helpful to our economy as most people think. Although raising taxes on the top percent of people and companies appears to create more income for the government, the result will make it harder for middle class and lower class citizens to grow. Some argue that by combining several key changes, including the simplification of the tax code to avoid loopholes and the decrease of taxes on the rich and corporations, there will be an improvement in the national economy. Although this may seem a bit counterintuitive, it makes more sense when looked at closely. By lower taxes and remove all loopholes, smaller businesses are given further opportunities to grow instead of facing financial roadblocks and government

The tax policy in the United States is very confusing. When the tax policy was originally written in 1913 it was four hundred pages. Now, over the past ninety one years, that tax policy has evolved to over 72,000 pages. Since the tax code has become so lengthy and nearly impossible to understand, the topic of tax reform has been in the minds of many. Although, most barely think about tax reform until tax season. It is a controversial subject due to the impact a change in tax code would have on the American people. The two most popular and widely known stakeholders in this debate are the two major political parties in the United States, the Democrats and the Republicans. The two parties share absolutely no common ground on the subject of

There are three different types of tax systems presented in this article: Progressive income tax, Flat tax, and the Fair Tax. The progressive tax system is what we have in the US and is common in countries across the world. It bases the percentage of income tax you should pay by the amount of income you receive. Basically, if you have a large income then the rate of tax you will pay is larger and, furthermore, if you have a low income you will have a lower rate to pay. Many conservatives dislike this system because it forces the top percentage of taxpayers to pay a majority of the tax revenue. “According to the Tax Foundation, the top 1% of taxpayers have consistently paid more in federal income taxes than the bottom 90% since 2003…” It treats people differently and it allows for

The debates on tax cuts are making their way to headlines of every radio station, newspaper, and television station in America. Today, tax cuts would only benefit the wealthy and wouldn’t really benefit the lower class. “The administration and it’s congressional alleys are proposing to sharply reduce taxation of the business income primarily benefiting

"The most perennially political issues in the United States is the question of how much Americans should be taxed. Indeed, discounted over taxes was one of the major motivating factors in the revolution that established the United States as an independent nation"("Extending Tax Cuts", 1). Since taxes are one of the biggest topics in politics, there is always going to be two sides of the subject, and Taxes will always strike controversy in our country. The topic of having the rich pay more in tax has a deep history to consider, and there will always be both supporters and critics who continue to debate this topic.

The Republican Party also supports a flat tax in addition to these tax cuts. Tax policies that divide Americans into separate groups aren’t something that Republicans agree with, such as raising taxes for the upper-class citizens. Republicans believe that the fairest way to tax United States citizens is to make everyone pay a certain percentage, no matter what your income is. In February of 2014 the Republicans released a tax reform plan. This plan included lower tax rates across the board, a new bank tax, and the elimination of state and local income tax deductions. The main goal of the proposal would be to eliminate 4 of the 7 tax brackets in the United States and create a 3-bracket system. This new system would drastically decrease many people’s tax rates. However, people who are at the bottom of the brackets would experience an increase in their tax rates.

With rapidly rising income inequality in the United States, would the redistribution of taxes benefit the US economy? It is one of the greatest political questions that deserves to be debated since the US economy suffers with a huge deficit that topped $20 trillion this year and is expected to grow by another 10 trillion over the next decade. In Julie Borowski’s blog post,”Why Shouldn’t the Rich Pay More in Taxes,” she reveals the value of equal opportunity as she proves her argument of why the rich should not bare a larger burden on the national debt crisis through her use of ethos, logos, cynical diction and rhetorical questions. Before we analyze her views, it is important to note that our federal income taxes pay for social security

While those making near the median income of $51,939 per year fall into the 25% tax bracket, taxpayers making over $413,200 per year pay 39.6% of their income to the government. Though heavily taxing the wealthy may seem to offer a solution to the ongoing economic woes, it has quite the opposite effect. For instance, many of the citizens who have a yearly income of over $413,200 own small and medium-sized businesses, which comprise a crucial part of our nation's economy. Because these private business owners are burdened by such high tax rates, they often have to pay their employees less and refrain from creating new jobs. Even more importantly, progressive taxation undermines the very fundamentals upon which the United States of America was founded by attempting to redistribute wealth through socialism. Our current tax system effectively strips individuals of their incentive to pursue entrepreneurship and positive economic development. In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson stated, “A wise and frugal government… shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” I am utterly disgusted at the way our government has blatantly disregarded the tenets of

It is with out a doubt that in our country the United States of America the lower and middle class have the common perception that the government and the “super rich” have some kind of unknown agreement to maintain extremely lower tax rates on the “super rich”. What do the “super rich” do with all the saved money coming from the tax cut is another unknown, perhaps some luxurious new home, car, or maybe put it to work and continue getting richer. While all this may be true to some degree, one of the “super rich” elite members has stepped fourth not only once but a few time but none compare to his current attempt to make change.

There is an issue that has plagued the United States even prior to the founding of the nation. That issue is fair taxation. While the American Colonists were being taxed unfairly without parliamentary representation, average modern Americans are being taxed unfairly without legal representation. Some hold the belief that the progressive tax code employed by the United States to be fair as the wealthy pay a higher marginal tax rate. The operative word there being marginal. As the upper class typically has a much lower effective tax rate since they are able to afford tax attorneys who are able to find many deductions that average citizens are unaware of. Mitt Romney is a prime example of low effective rates of taxation. According to CNN Money, Mitt Romney made twenty-one million dollars in one year, but only paid an effective rate of fifteen percent, which is much lower than the rate he should be paying. The progressive tax system is one that is littered with loopholes, but those are only known to those with the means to search them out as the federal tax code spans seventy-thousand of pages of convoluted text. Not even the highest paid tax accountants will ever read anywhere near the full volume of tax laws. By the tax code being as long as it is, few are able to reap the full benefits of the tax code. The level of complicated text is not the only major issue with the federal tax code.

This may sound like a tax plan that will relieve the financial burden on lower-income taxpayers, directly benefiting the poor, but in actuality, cutting taxes for all in a regressive manner gives substantially more money to the wealthiest taxpayers and a very small amount to lower income taxpayers. According to his plan, a typical American family of four will be able to keep at least $1, 600 more of

Taxing the upper class and large corporations offer many benefits such as bringing back loss revenue and employing that money to create more government programs for the population. It is also fair because the rich have found ways to avoid paying taxes by hiding their earnings in another location. With Sanders’ proposal, loopholes in the tax code will be closed and the opulent will have to pay taxes. Nonetheless, this proposal will raise taxes for the population, which will also affect the middle class. Although this tax raise mostly targets the affluent, the middle class will see a decrease of 10.56 percent in their after tax income and an average decrease of 12.84 percent of after tax income for all classes, excluding the lowest class (Edwards).

When it comes to the new tax reform framework, while it might help some Americans, it also can hurt the rest of the people who does not fall into one of the tax brackets. However, if the plan is done accurately and it is designed to help all of America, not just the wealthy, then they can get it done. Also, it should be called a tax cut and not a reform. Honestly, the question everyone needs to ask is which income level is really going to benefit from the new framework. Which individual or married couple will this new tax reform help or worst hurt the most.

The rich tend to get richer, whereas, the poor tends to get poorer and have no authority over the big corporation wolfs. Sure thing, this taxation reforms may only benefit one party or even both, but at the end the low class will end up paying the price for it. McConnell states on page 165 under the section of Self-serving Bias “The term self-serving bias refers to people’s tendency to attribute their successes to personal effort or personal effort or personal character traits while at the same time attributing any failures to factors that were out of their control” (Flynn.)