Progressive Tax? wrote:
Aside from "They can," can anybody explain why people who make more pay a higher PERCENTAGE? It's ALREADY a perecentage, which obviously means that those who make more are ALREADY contributing more (often MUCH more) to support the government. But that's not good enough. They have to pay a higher percentage. Oh, no, wait, that's not good enough, either, they have to pay an EVEN higher rate, or they're not paying their fair share. What utter BS. BTW, not rich, never will be. I think that it's called fairness, and lack of envy.
The decreasing marginal value of the dollar. If I make $50k per year, those dollars are pretty valuable. If I make $5Mil per year, the dollars are less valuable. If you don't believe that, take it to an extreme. How valuable is a dollar to me, if I make $10 Trillion per year? Money does not matter at all at that point. That's why you see guys like Bill Gates just giving away $250Mil. He doesn't give a sh!t about $250Mil. It's nothing to him.
I make about $200k per year and I live a pretty extravagant life compared to the average person. I have a lot of friends that make around $50k per year. I hang out with them, and I see how hard it is for them to get by on $50k per year. I essentially have $150k to shart away compared to them. So, the value of that $150k to me is lower than my first $50k that pays for necessities.
When someone gives me $1000 or I have a house repair that costs $1000, I hardly care. Because I have $150k of money above and beyond what I really need.