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! You live in a highly unusual country...this probably explains why the rest of us just cant understand US politics and you cant understand ours. Your constitution is the only thing stopping your nation from just reverting to feudalism!
Is that real? anyone else got any charts showing a different story?

yes, we are weird - thank goodness but when the dollar evaporates, we'll all be serfs - or free - again.

It's my right to own a few serfs.

Of course it is, Lord Vulgaris...

AcneVulgaris wrote:It's my right to own a few serfs.

Owning them is the easy part, getting them to grow good produce is like pulling teeth from a shark, and you can only threaten them with torture and death for so long before you start to look like a raving madman at the swap meets.

*Sighs* You just can't get good help these days.

Well over here we pay for our "socialism" with our taxes, some pay more, some less, but everyone pays one way or another. Contrary to what that dubious article above is attempting to show, our rich/super rich are quite proficient at not paying taxes at all. Indeed super rich from all over the world come here so they can benefit from our easily defrauded systems and obvious tax havens.

*RD moves to England so MTS can pay his taxes for him*

MrTwosheds wrote:Well over here we pay for our "socialism" with our taxes, some pay more, some less, but everyone pays one way or another. Contrary to what that dubious article above is attempting to show, our rich/super rich are quite proficient at not paying taxes at all. Indeed super rich from all over the world come here so they can benefit from our easily defrauded systems and obvious tax havens.

Its no different in many other north-western Euro countries. In effect, if you have the money to invest, you can find ways around paying taxes over that money. Most basic example is that when you rent, you pay rent, when you buy, the government gives you back part of the interest you pay (so those lucky enough to be able to buy have a bonus, while the just as hard working people who are forced to rent, dont).

lucky enough to buy??? does the money drop out of the sky there? the homes? people wandering around looking under rocks? *RD imagines people wandering around, holding baskets in the air, hoping some money falls out of the sky*

With house prices as they are at the moment here in the UK, most people will need the money to drop out of the sky... Buying even a small house is now impossible for a sizeable proportion of the population. Not just the ordinary below average wage folk but professionals too. If you want to buy in London you'd better make sure your going to be a millionaire first.
People are paying huge sums for properties Americans would think are little better than a small damp shed.

Red Devil wrote:lucky enough to buy??? does the money drop out of the sky there? the homes? people wandering around looking under rocks? *RD imagines people wandering around, holding baskets in the air, hoping some money falls out of the sky*

I know several people that have the same level of education, all put in an equal amount of effort, yet still some make more than twice what some others do ... that lucky enough to buy!!!!!!!

Its like this, an ordinary bloke (not the imaginary average) probably earns £16000 per year or less, In my area to buy a small house your now talking £250,000 minimum, or ALL his wages for 15 years, in other words he will be lucky to pay off his mortgage before he retires.
But nobody's going to lend him the money. Renting costs even more! People cant leave home, get married, have kids until they're half way through their working life. Hurry up with that economic crash! we cant wait much longer.

Lets try not to fall into the % game. % of what? Many metrics are skewed to fit the side giving the facts. For example, if you go by % of total taxes paid it looks pitiful because you are ignoring the all groups are not of equal size. The correct metric would be to use % paid per % population.

Of course, the way taxes work here in the US, not sure about elsewhere, you pay taxes when you invest your money, you pay taxes when you get the fruits of that investment or labor, and you get taxed when you DIE. Your money is taxed at LEAST 3 times.

Lets try not to fall into the % game. % of what? Many metrics are skewed to fit the side giving the facts.

Yes, that's what metrics are for.

This just makes no sense at all, unless America is in fact mostly populated by millionaires, my guess is that at least 400 million of you are not and that in fact your combined tax bill seriously outweighs the contributions made by those who are.
I would guess that some smart-arse has dropped the "corporations as people" into this metric causing it to show something very very far removed from reality.