Working vs Not Working on US Retirement

[bae]

Correction: everyone making over $191,100 a year should be paying taxes. I should not have written everyone should be paying taxes. It is only everyone rich who should be paying alternative minimum taxes. Bezos makes more than $191,100 a year.

Your theory is that Bezos shows $191,101 or more in AGI, and somehow doesn't pay any income tax?

Where is your support for this? Do you have one of his tax returns to show us how he performs this magic trick?

(Some years I have "made" more than $191,101, and paid $0 in Federal income tax, but....that wasn't because I was "shirking". That income also didn't make it down to line XX on the 1040...)

[Yppej]

Shirking is by definition neglecting a duty or responsibility.

Tax loopholes written by lobbyists for the wealthy may be legal, but they are immoral and unfair. The rich often pay nothing, people who are not even citizens collect while doing nothing, and the working and middle class citizens worry about medical bills and other financial problems all the time. No wonder populists are doing so well.

[bae]

Shirking is by definition neglecting a duty or responsibility.

Tax loopholes written by lobbyists for the wealthy may be legal, but they are immoral and unfair. The rich often pay nothing, people who are not even citizens collect while doing nothing, and the working and middle classes worry about medical bills and other financial problems all the time. No wonder populists are doing so well.

So you are just making stuff up. Mere cant.

"Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes."

Judge Learned Hand, Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809, 810-11 (2d Cir. 1934).

[Yppej]

Build your business from the educational system that trains your workforce, the infrastructure that allows you to get your products to market, and the legal system that allows you to operate without your profits being stolen or confiscated but don't pay any taxes. The immigrants paying nothing in but collecting benefits aren't the only freeloaders.

[bae]

Foolishness. You are casting moral shade on people who are simply following the legal guidelines our society has set up, and who are structuring their operations to conform with the policies promoted by our elected representatives and cast into law.

And you have not yet backed up your claim that Jeff pays no taxes.

So, yes, mere cant.

[Yppej]

So you are just making stuff up. Mere cant.

"Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes."

Judge Learned Hand, Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809, 810-11 (2d Cir. 1934).

1934. Great advice if you are a have and don't want to help out the have-nots during the middle of the Great Depression. Remind me, which social class's Wall Street speculation got us into the Great Depression to begin with? And which populist president pushed reforms to get us out of it?

[Yppej]

Foolishness. You are casting moral shade on people ... with the policies promoted by our elected representatives and cast into law.
.

It was legal to make money off slaves in this country for a couple hundred years. I have every right to cast moral shade on people who through lobbyists and outsize donations aka bribes twisted our government to benefit their special interests. Legality does not equal morality.

[catherine]

Foolishness. You are casting moral shade on people who are simply following the legal guidelines our society has set up,

Exactly. So maybe the "legal guidelines" should be changed. I'm up for suggestions.

I happen to agree with Yppej that it sucks that people who pay into a system their whole lives should benefit equally with those who cross the border today, if that's what is happening. But if you are in tune with Biblical stories, unfairness is to be expected. Look at Job, and the Prodigal Son's brother. Both could say, WTF??

But from a political perspective, how do you account for injustice? Which system of government reduces injustice? Probably none. Not capitalism. Not socialism. Not libertarianism. We should probably just agree that life isn't fair. Maybe we shouldn't expect the government to make it fair. But I would like a government that tries to make it fair for most of its citizens. If that means raising taxes on those who have benefited from this system, so be it. If it means making sure that Yppej is compensated for years of service to the country, so be it. Not an easy task to make everyone feel they're in the same boat, but what we have now isn't cutting it.

[Teacher Terry]

I am shocked that sponsored immigrants can qualify for benefits. Their family should support them. But I am much more disturbed by the wealthy evading taxes legally and not paying their fair share either. Lots of blame to go around. Like usual the people in the middle class will suffer.

[Gardnr]

I am shocked that sponsored immigrants can qualify for benefits. Their family should support them. But I am much more disturbed by the wealthy evading taxes legally and not paying their fair share either. Lots of blame to go around. Like usual the people in the middle class will suffer.

You can thank the highly beloved Ron Reagan for this. His tax changes nearly bankrupted us but I was too damn stubborn to file.