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In Reply to: Politics & Religion posted by Carol on May 24, 2004 at 07:56:13:
The Truth about Taxes- Anonymous
Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that everyday,ten men go out to dinner. The bill for all 10 comes to $100. If theypay the bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something loke this:
The first 4 men the poorest would pay nothing;
The fifth would pay $1
The sixth would pay $3
The seventh $7
The eigth $12
The ninth $18
The tenth man the richest would pay $59. Thats what they decided to do. The 10 men ate dinner in the retaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until 1 day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20. So now dinner for the 10 men would only cost $80. The group wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other 6 paying customers? How would they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?" The six men realized that $20 divided by 6 is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everbody's share the fifth and sixth man would end up being *paid* to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceded to work out the amounts each would pay. And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sisxth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59.
Each of the 6 men was better off than before. And the first 4 continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth. "But he got $7!" "Yeah that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!" "That's right" shouted the seveth man. "Why should he get back $7 when I only get $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute" yelled the first 4 men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system always exploits the poor." The 9 men surroonrd the 10 and beat him up. The nexy night he didn't show up for dinner, so the 9 sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They were $52 short! And that, boys and girls, journalist, and college instucrtors, is how the tax system works. The people that pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just might not show up at the table anymore. Unfortunately, Liberals cannot graspthis straight forward logic!
