The Facts About Who Pays the Most in Taxes in America | Intellectual Takeout

Walter E. Williams | October 19, 2017

Politicians exploit public ignorance. Few areas of public ignorance provide as many opportunities for political demagoguery as taxation.

Today some politicians argue that the rich must pay their fair share and label the proposed changes in tax law as tax cuts for the rich.

Let’s look at who pays what, with an eye toward attempting to answer this question: Are the rich paying their fair share?

According to the latest IRS data, the payment of income taxes is as follows.

The top 1 percent of income earners, those having an adjusted annual gross income of $480,930 or higher, pay about 39 percent of federal income taxes. That means about 892,000 Americans are stuck with paying 39 percent of all federal taxes.

The top 10 percent of income earners, those having an adjusted gross income over $138,031, pay about 70.6 percent of federal income taxes.

About 1.7 million Americans, less than 1 percent of our population, pay 70.6 percent of federal income taxes. Is that fair, or do you think they should pay more?

By the way, earning $500,000 a year doesn’t make one rich. It’s not even yacht money.

But the fairness question goes further. The bottom 50 percent of income earners, those having an adjusted gross income of $39,275 or less, pay 2.83 percent of federal income taxes.

Thirty-seven million tax filers have no tax obligation at all. The Tax Policy Center estimates that 45.5 percent of households will not pay federal income tax this year.

There’s a severe political problem of so many Americans not having any skin in the game. These Americans become natural constituencies for big-spending politicians. After all, if you don’t pay federal taxes, what do you care about big spending?

Also, if you don’t pay federal taxes, why should you be happy about a tax cut? What’s in it for you? In fact, you might see tax cuts as threatening your handout programs.

Our nation has a 38.91 percent tax on corporate earnings, the fourth-highest in the world. The House of Representatives has proposed that it be cut to 20 percent—some members of Congress call for a 15 percent rate.

The nation’s political hustlers object, saying corporations should pay their fair share of taxes. The fact of the matter—which even leftist economists understand, though they might not publicly admit it—is corporations do not pay taxes.

An important subject area in economics is called tax incidence. It holds that the entity upon whom a tax is levied does not necessarily bear its full burden. Some of it can be shifted to another party.

If a tax is levied on a corporation, it will have one of four responses or some combination thereof. It will raise the price of its product, lower dividends, cut salaries, or lay off workers. In each case, a flesh-and-blood person bears the tax burden.

The important point is that corporations are legal fictions and as such do not pay taxes. Corporations are merely tax collectors for the government.

Politicians love to trick people by suggesting that they will impose taxes not on them but on some other entity instead. We can personalize the trick by talking about property taxes.

Imagine that you are a homeowner and a politician tells you he is not going to tax you. Instead, he’s going to tax your property and land.

You would easily see the political chicanery. Land and property cannot and do not pay taxes. Again, only people pay taxes. The same principle applies to corporations.

There’s another side to taxes that goes completely unappreciated. According to a 2013 study by the Virginia-based Mercatus Center, Americans spend up to $378 billion annually in tax-related accounting costs, and in 2011, Americans spent more than 6 billion hours complying with the tax code.

Those hours are equivalent to the annual hours of a workforce of 3.4 million, or the number of people employed by four of the largest U.S. companies—Wal-Mart, IBM, McDonald’s, and Target—combined.

Along with tax cuts, tax simplification should be on the agenda.

This article was originally published at The Daily Signal.

 

The Facts About Who Pays the Most in Taxes in America | Intellectual Takeout

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Articles: Bending the Knee

This commentary is from American Thinker 9/28/17

 

By William L. Gensert

When I grew up, we were poor. We had very little and if my grandfather hadn’t come to this country from Sicily at the turn of the last century and with his own hands built the house we lived in, we would have had nothing at all.

My mother was a widow with three children under four years old living in a one-bedroom apartment. Yet, the things we didn’t have didn’t matter, because in school we learned that in this country if we worked hard we could have anything, we could be anything -- it was the American dream.

So, I may not have had much, but I was still blessed by God to be an American. I believed every morning when we said the Pledge of Allegiance that the good Lord had bestowed upon me a true grace allowing me to be born in this “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

I remember crouching underneath my desk waiting for a warning siren. I remember praying every day that the Soviet Union (that’s what Russia was called then) would not blow us up. I had a key to our apartment when I was five years old because my mother had to work every day so that we could have Captain Crunch and Quisp for breakfast. I wonder what kids had for breakfast in the Soviet Union?

Years later when I held my little boy on my chest as we watched TV, I thanked God and Country for the child in my arms and the opportunities he would have in his life.

Today, I fully understand that if I had been born in another nation, I would have been dead long before my expiration date.

I believed in the American dream then and I believe in it now. I look around me at the things I have and the life I lived and know there is no other place on earth where this would have been possible. I stand for the National Anthem; I stand in gratitude; I stand in awe; I stand humbled by the greatness of America.
 
Colin Kaepernick refused to stand because he believed the flag stood for oppression or something or other. It doesn’t matter what his reasons were. We should not care because the “why” is immaterial. He refused to stand and he paid the price for his actions through lost employment opportunities. He has never expressed regret for what he did. Good for him, you should never let your mouth write a check your backside isn’t willing to cash. But it is not racism that he can’t get a job; it is due diligence on the part of potential employers. What team wants distractions from their backup quarterback?

Recently he said he was done with his protest and the ‘not standing for the National Anthem’ fad was losing traction until Donald Trump tweeted that any son of a b@#*h who doesn’t stand should be fired. This reignited the protests when the NFL decided that they were going to support players who refused to stand, which opened the door to those players who wanted to virtue signal their purity as rebels in society. Being a rebel is fun when it doesn’t cost you anything.

I don’t agree with the president’s choice of language and if I were he, I would have stayed out of the whole thing, but he has a right to his opinion just like everyone else.

Stand, kneel or don’t come out of the locker room, this is a free country. The Constitution of the United States of America guarantees everyone the right to disrespect our nation and its flag but don’t dare tell me I have to like it or if I don’t like it I am a Nazi, or a racist, or whatever they say I am because I don’t support their ingratitude -- and don’t say their employer doesn’t have the right to fire them or that people don’t have a right to change the channel either. The Constitution guarantees your right to voice your opinion but it doesn’t shield you from the repercussions of voicing your opinion.  

Remember James Damore? He’s the Google engineer who wrote the infamous “Google Memo” about the differences between men and women and how their personal choices and interests explain the relative paucity of female engineers better than does discrimination and unconscious bias. Google fired him for his missive and many on the right were outraged, maintaining he was terminated for exercising his First Amendment right to his opinion. Google said he was canned for “perpetuating gender stereotypes,” which lends credence to that charge but he was also fired for sending out a company-wide email criticising his employer. Freedom of speech gives you the right to speak your mind but it doesn’t shield you from consequences.

The First Amendment works both ways. While everyone is afforded the right to their opinions, everyone else also has the right to disagree with you and that goes for people booing football players and employers terminating recalcitrant employees who voice disagreeable opinions. Everyone has the right to disagree with anyone’s opinion.

My opinion is that those who refuse to stand should understand there is blood beneath their feet. People died so they can do what they do -- disrespect their nation’s flag while playing a game for fame and fortune.

As I said before, this is a free country. The forefathers fought for this. Dead people whose names most cannot recall fought for this.

Stand if you want, kneel if you want.

But don’t you dare look at me and think you are anything special because you take the very fashionable stance of disparaging this nation.

There is blood at your feet, whether you stand or kneel. Fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters died so that you can look down your nose at the rest of us.

I will not condemn you; I will not hold anything you do against you.

As I said, you do what you want -- it’s your right.

But for me, I stand and in doing so, to God and Country, I bend the knee.

And that’s my right.

Source:
Articles: Bending the Knee

Jesus' Marriage to Mary the Magdalene Is Fact, Not Fiction | HuffPost

By Simcha Jacobovici

 

The publication on Nov. 12, 2014 of the book I co-wrote with Prof. Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel: Decoding the Ancient Text that Reveals Jesus’ Marriage to Mary the Magdalene, has caused a worldwide theological firestorm, including demonstrations in India. I was even the butt of one of Bill O’Reilly’s attacks and have challenged him to an on-air debate. So far, he’s demurred.  

I think the reason for all this negativity is that the proof for the historical marriage between Jesus of Nazareth and the woman known as Mary the Magdalene has become overwhelming. Even before our findings, everything — everything — pointed to a marriage, and nothing — nothing — argued for Jesus’ celibacy. The only thing that continues to argue for Jesus’ celibacy is 2000 years of theological bullying. This may come as a shock to most people, but the fact is that none of the four Gospels say that Jesus was celibate. The Gospels call Jesus “Rabbi” (Matthew 26:49, Mark 10:51, John 20:16). Rabbis, then as now, are married. If Jesus wasn’t married, someone would have noticed. 

 

The greatest promoter of celibacy for Christians was Paul. On every other matter of Jewish law — and Paul was a Jew called Saul at birth — Paul was lax. He threw out Kosher laws, ignored Sabbath observance and prayed that the hands of ritual circumcisers shake so that they cut off their own penises when they perform circumcision (Galatians 5:12). Only when it came to sex Paul was more severe than Moses and Jesus put together. Why? The answer may lie in Paul’s background.

As everyone knows, “Paul of Tarsus” came from Tarsus, an area of modern-day Turkey. What people don’t know is that in the Tarsus of Paul’s day they worshipped a god named Attis. Perhaps not coincidentally, Attis was a dying and resurrecting god. He was called “the Good Shepard”, and his earliest depictions show him with a sheep across his shoulders. All these images were later incorporated into the iconography of Paul’s version of Christianity. Put simply, Paul’s Jesus looks a lot like Attis.

Read more here:
Jesus' Marriage to Mary the Magdalene Is Fact, Not Fiction | HuffPost

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Shut the Fuck Up About Your Bullshit Cancer “Cure”

Enough with shooting coffee up the ass.

It was as a little over two years ago. My aunt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Her physician described this type of cancer as one that “comes as a thief in the night.” That’s because there often are no symptoms with cancer of the pancreas until it’s too late. And what the thief steals is life.

Cancer sucks, and so does the treatment. But it doesn’t suck so bad it can’t be made worse by the cluelessly well-meaning pushing some bullshit.

When my aunt was diagnosed, someone who will remain nameless said, “If she starts on a ketogen—“ “STOP TALKING RIGHT NOW!” I interrupted them. “Just … don’t say another word.” I knew my aunt had only a short time, and I didn’t have time for hearing bullshit cancer “cures.”

Want to know who else doesn’t have time for them? People with cancer.

Often, it’s an organization profiting off the desperate via selling pseudoscience. And they get free promotion from the gullible. As I was researching this piece, a friend coincidentally posted this on Facebook:

“Do people really think that nutrition can cure terminal cancer?”

One person, who is a real estate agent rather than an oncologist, commented: “Yes. Nutrition will prevent cancer and it will heal cancer. However the disbelief will hinder any possibility. They say you are what you think AND you are what you eat AND you are who you believe you are. Recipe is worthiness, faith, and whole foods.”

I replied to her: “May I ask, what are your opinions on modern medical cancer treatments such as surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy?”

Her reply? “I think that they are controlled by money and greed at the foundation of it call. The folks who pay for the Research are those who build wealth from the medications. Again, many principles would have to break down, many high paying jobs would be lost and many egos will be bruised if we just got off the medication wagon and got on the Meditaition airplane. Cancer and all diseases are signs of healing that needs to happen.”

On that same post, a construction worker commented: “I heard detox tea does wonders.”

Another commenter: “Cancer thrives in an acidic environment. If you are able to keep your body in an alkaline state cancer can’t grow or survive. It’s literally that simple.”

Another realtor commented: “Most cancers are caused by a vitamin deficiency, brought on by the removal of foods in the last 100 years that are high in nitrilocides (or Vitamin B17).” This guy was pushing eating apricot seeds to prevent and cure cancer, despite the high risk of cyanide poisoning.

I’m not going to dissect the various types of bullshit cancer cures, because a book or three can be written on this crap. Rather, I’ll state a simple fact: Pseudoscience doesn’t cure people. There is no grand conspiracy to hide the cure for cancer. The only hope people have is via scientifically proven methods, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.

Granted, none of these are fun. Sometimes they extend lives, sometimes they save lives. And when you convince a cancer patient to opt out of that which is scientifically proven and instead use a bullshit “cure,” you might as well shoot them in the head.

Stories abound of the person who had the highly treatable form of cancer, yet opted for quackery, then got worse. By the time they made the decision to use real medicine, it was too late. The decision to use quackery killed them.

I want to share with you the stories of two real people who have been undergoing science-based cancer treatments for years to stay alive. Despite having no interest in hearing about bullshit “cures,” they hear about them all the time. It takes a toll.
Read more:
Shut the Fuck Up About Your Bullshit Cancer “Cure” | Body for Wife

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Is it Time We Got Serious about Teaching Logic?

Annie Holmquist | October 6, 2016

After the first presidential debate of 2016, CNN decided to see what the kids thought of the spectacle. The answer? Not much:

“‘I would say it's a circus,’ said seventh-grader Matthew Wei, who would vote for Trump if he weren't #tooyoungtovote. ‘This is one of the most bizarre campaigns ever. It's all about Hillary Clinton saying something bad about, and making commercials about, Trump. And Donald Trump saying something bad about Hillary.’”

But while young people like Matthew recognize that something was terribly wrong with the debate, they themselves may be drawn into making the same mistakes. That is, unless more schools begin to train students in the basics of logical reasoning.

At the time of the American Founding, Ben Franklin recommended students learn logic in grades we would now classify as middle or high school. But such a class is almost non-existent in today’s schools, despite the lip service continually paid toward “critical thinking.”

The good news is that parents can pick up the slack of the schools by teaching their children to recognize the logical fallacies which increasingly pervade presidential elections, social media debates, and every day conversations.

We’ve previously recommended The Fallacy Detective and The Thinking Toolbox as excellent, fun books with which adults and children alike can learn the basics of rational thinking. An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments is another book written in the same vein.

“Aimed at newcomers to the field of logical reasoning,” An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments presents 19 common logical fallacies, describing each in a one-page summary. The crowning feature of the book is the detailed cartoon drawings which accompany each summary, enabling students to have a visual remembrance of the logical fallacies they should avoid.

After the 2016 election, would you agree that it’s high time American students and adults both learned how to avoid bad arguments?

Annie is a senior writer with Intellectual Takeout. In her role, she assists with website content production and social media messaging.  

Annie received a B.A. in Biblical Studies from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. She also brings 20+ years of experience as a music educator and a volunteer teacher – particularly with inner city children – to the table in her research and writing. 

In her spare time Annie enjoys the outdoors, gardening, reading, and events with family and friends.
 

Is it Time We Got Serious about Teaching Logic? | Intellectual Takeout

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