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#11 - adu (08/21/2013) [-]
It's also worth mentioning that the guy who took 37 slices of the pizza footed 67% of the bill for it.
User avatar #294 to #11 - metalmind (08/23/2013) [-]
Well, that's ******** , since they pay lower taxes than the person who only gets 1 slice.
#281 to #11 - anonymous (08/21/2013) [-]
The pizza is all the wealth... the bill would have to be paid with it. Also, the rich will always pay most of the total taxes collected the more unequal incomes are even if taxing is regressive. Say 99 people split 1 slice and one guy gets 99 slices. The 99 are taxed 100% and the guy is taxed 10%. The 99 give back their 1 slice. The guy gives up 10 slices, angrily complains he footed >90% of the bill, and starts eating while wondering why everyone else looks like your gif.
User avatar #282 to #281 - adu (08/21/2013) [-]
Except wealth does not simply exist, it must be generated through labor and commerce. There's no imaginary wealth pizza that already exists for people to take from, it has to be made first, so the guy who puts the most into making the pizza naturally gets the most slices to do whatever the hell he wants.
#205 to #11 - voltism (08/21/2013) [-]
It's also worth noting there's a difference between someone who can give up 67% of his or her income and still have three boats a lamborghini and a mansion, and someone who gives up 67% of their income and can't afford to eat.
User avatar #251 to #205 - LiamNeeson (08/21/2013) [-]
You don't pay 67% if you have 5 dollars. There are things called tax brackets.
User avatar #234 to #205 - twofreegerbils (08/21/2013) [-]
So you're saying that the hardest workers and the biggest contributors to the economy should be punished with higher taxes?
User avatar #241 to #234 - darakremen (08/21/2013) [-]
Define "hard work"
#244 to #241 - twofreegerbils (08/21/2013) [-]
My grandparents are so-called "1 percenters".

Their house cost 5 million dollars to build. They regularly travel to Europe on vacation. They're paying for my college and the college of all their other grandchildren. My point: they're ******* loaded.

But they EARNED all of their money with HARD WORK. My grandpa bought a tractor trailer at 16 and started hauling loads of freight across the country. He was hardly ever home and missed the birth of one of his children. His wife handled all of the secretary work out of their house. He used the money he EARNED to buy more trucks hire people to drive them.

50 years later and they have over 100 trucks and employ twice that many people.

They EARNED their money with HARD WORK and now give back to the community with employment opportunities. Socialists don't understand this concept.
User avatar #266 to #244 - cyanskater (08/21/2013) [-]
"My grandpa bought a tractor trailer at 16"
Yeah because most people have this opportunity. It's obvious that your grandpa was already vastly wealthy enough (compared to the majority of the population) to buy a machine that took I'm sure thousands of hours of work just to engineer, manufacture, and assemble, but let's not forget the work it took to gather the raw materials required. Those people who work making that product are not in a position to buy what's at the end of the line. Their job doesn't pay enough.
Others would use that money to live on the edge, allowing their family to live relatively normal consumerist lives, that's the result of the contrast between scarcity and wealth.

Now I'm not saying your grandpa didn't make sacrifices, everyone makes sacrifices, suffers, and works hard. Mostly everyone. The difference is once again, how skewed the balance of wealth is. Like you said, they're paying for the college of their grandchildren. Now the grandchildren are rich, with no presumed "hard work" for it.

Truth is, there is a huge imbalance of wealth in this nation, akin to those where corruption is explicitly evident in their society. Of course capitalism works- for some, but it's clear that it doesn't work for everyone, and as we know most of success doesn't come from solely from hard work, but is simply opportune, meaning the imbalance is to an extent unjust.
#272 to #266 - twofreegerbils (08/21/2013) [-]
Oh right, I'm sure my grandpa definitely was a trust fund kid and was totally loaded to start out with.

I'm sure everything he told me was a lie and you actually know the history of my grandpa's life better than I do. Tell me more about him please!

I'm sure he didn't take out a LOAN on his truck that he payed off by hauling freight to New York. I bet he lied to me about that

User avatar #277 to #272 - cyanskater (08/21/2013) [-]
Don't be silly now, you didn't mention a loan in your comment nor did I claim to know your grandfather, regardless, what I said remains valid in most situations regarding successful entrepreneurship in the U.S.
Congratulations btw, on your grandpa's business.
User avatar #278 to #277 - twofreegerbils (08/21/2013) [-]
But you assumed he was "vastly wealthy" to begin with, which is about as far from the truth as you could possibly get.
User avatar #279 to #278 - cyanskater (08/21/2013) [-]
Like I said, I assumed he was wealthy enough to buy a tractor trailer because that's what you said. You failed to mentioned he bought it with a loan (essentially borrowing a tractor trailer) in the original comment, but now it's been enlightened and I have retracted that specific statement so there's no need to be offended.
#260 to #244 - giggleassasin (08/21/2013) [-]
I don't believe anyone but the most extreme of socialists want to deny people fortunes they worked hard to earn, or even fortunes they might not have deserved (bankers, wall street), but to give based on ability would raise the quality of life for literally everyone in the US. Beyond that, our country now equates money to speech (i.e. representation) and I don't think the idea of equivalent taxation for greater representation is at all unfair

#257 to #244 - darakremen (08/21/2013) [-]
though working hard may not always make you rich, even if you dont have to support others and only work for yourself, businesses can still fail due to circumstances no matter how hard you work. Many people find themselves in a position where they cannot support themselves.    
Isn't it fair that the people who live way over the average standard give a very small amount to those in need so that the can get a chance to get by until they get back on their feet?
#256 to #244 - anonymous (08/21/2013) [-]
So he worked really hard, got lucky with his company, then was able to stop working decades sooner than most people while there's over a billion people out there still breaking their ass until they die for a few dollars a month.

The hardest workers, are generally not the richest people.
User avatar #264 to #256 - twofreegerbils (08/21/2013) [-]
>got lucky
Yes I'm sure you know more about the intricacies of his small business than I do.
>stop working
Implying he will ever.
#268 to #264 - anonymous (08/21/2013) [-]
I know a lot of the intricacies of small businesses in general, and in general most small businesses fail, even if they are managed extremely well, just look at the facts available everywhere.

Anyway, are you saying he's still driving a tractor around delivering **** ? Are you telling me that even if he was, driving a tractor to deliver things is harder work than the sweat shops, farming, etc. hundreds of millions are involved in on a daily basis until they die?

Here's the facts, you say your grandpa worked hard, but "hard" is relative, and he hasn't worked harder than these people. He was lucky to be born in whatever life he did, he was lucky for whatever circumstances to occur that his company skyrocketed, sure, there can be much skill and other work involved, but the plain fact is, luck is very important when creating a business. Those people who are working harder are still poor as **** and most of them die poor, and that's a pure fact.
#275 to #268 - anonymous (08/21/2013) [-]
No, you're defining hard work as strictly difficult labour. The fact is that one can work hard whether they wear a white collar or a blue one. Not everyone is cut out to run a business, nor is everyone cut out for labour. Owning a business is incredibly stressful. People's employment, your's and their very livelihood, depends on the decisions you make. And believe me, not everyone is cut out to be a decision maker.

We live in an economy that can reward hard work with success. The problem is that success is not, and never has been guaranteed. Despite that fact, we have grown to feel entitled to become millionaires no matter what.

Everyone gets their shot at their success, but it will never be a sure thing. The government's only job should be making America is a land of equal opportunity, not a land of equality.
User avatar #273 to #268 - twofreegerbils (08/21/2013) [-]
No, he's not still driving a truck around, he worked HARD when he was younger so he doesn't have to today. Now he manages other people who drive trucks around, and many of those employees have left his company to go off and start their own trucking companies.

Frankly, the fact that you want to leech off of his earnings is insulting. What did you do to deserve them? What have you ever done that makes you worthy of the money that my grandpa worked his ass off for?
#283 to #273 - anonymous (08/22/2013) [-]
Did I say I want to leech his earnings? I don't want his money, nor will I ever need his money. I easily can reach into the top 5% of the US incomes.

Here, please grab a seat and listen to my own familial heritage if you would:

Apparently your mentality is that all you have to do is work young and retire in your comfortable American dream. My parents were poor as hell farmers that used the most basic utilities to farm in a rather poor country as well, i.e. no machines. Their lives involved being surrounded by toxic chemicals, and harvesting plants from dirt they tilled with their own sweat. They eventually managed to scrape up enough money to move away and form a rather successful life, thanks to my grandparents, who were farmers until well into their 70s (My entire family, up until my generation lived their lives farming), excluding one of my grandfathers, they've all died from symptoms obtained from their work, especially cancer.
#284 to #283 - anonymous (08/22/2013) [-]
They lived their life working hard, and they died working hard, never did they get to enjoy your nice "retirement". My father became a cancer researcher and earned **** , he eventually lost his job after his entire division was cut, and began working at other labs thousands of miles away, visiting rarely. Hell, you don't think working your ass in the hot suns from sunrise to sunset is stressful? You think that the comfy American life where all you have to do is become a waiter, and you earn enough to live better than a billion people is hard? You don't know what hard is. You don't understand what real work is. Coming from my family, I had to understand such things. I never owned a video game until my teenage years. Throughout my school years, I always charted into the top of my class, academically and athletically, I did what I could.
Just because you work hard, doesn't mean you deserve what you get. It just means you were lucky enough
User avatar #285 to #284 - twofreegerbils (08/22/2013) [-]
We're talking about America here. America. Not whatever country your grandparents lived in. This entire thread has been about American economics. Everything you just said is meaningless in the context of this thread. It's simply proof that American economics > whatever pisspoor economic policies your country practiced.
#286 to #285 - anonymous (08/22/2013) [-]
Hue, no, we've been discussing the context of hard work and whether your definition of hard work is actually hard work. Which it isn't. Just because my replies shat on your BS reasoning doesn't mean you can attack a scarecrow.
0/10 try it again somewhere else kid, plenty of cozy little white collar shops for you to work in while you leech off your grandparents success

And I'm done. I gave my point, your further replies after that just prove you have no idea what hard work is, as such I won't be able to read them.
#250 to #244 - anonymous (08/21/2013) [-]
See, that is respectable. It's the people that didn't really earn their money that piss everyone off. (Inheritors, people that use other people, "businessman", etc.)
User avatar #254 to #250 - twofreegerbils (08/21/2013) [-]
Inheritors or "trust fund babies" are born into that situation, they shouldn't be punished with higher taxes because they got lucky with who they were born

We could have a huge debate over whether or not people who manipulate money to make more money should be considered legitimate workers or contributors to society, but frankly my head would split having to deal with all the grey areas of ethics and morals involved.
User avatar #119 to #11 - junkinator ONLINE (08/21/2013) [-]
Because the last time we ordered pizza, he sold 36 of the slices back to us
#24 to #11 - anonymous (08/21/2013) [-]
top one percent or earners have 37% of wealth pay 38% of tax.... this is federal income tax and tells very little of the story. As other taxes particularly state level sales and such will push the percentage of tax income that the 1% provide below the amount they make. this applies for the top 5 percent.
#18 to #11 - anonymous (08/21/2013) [-]
By sitting on his ass. Not really deserving.
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