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Advocating an increased minimum wage is complaining about the government.

• scarface74 7y ago
  Do you think that everyone deserves “a livable wage” - even my 17 year old son staying at home flipping pizza?
  • behringer 7y ago
    Yes. We're an immensely wealthy country
    • scarface74 7y ago
      Who should pay for it? The pizza shop owner with a net income of under $50K a year after working 70+ hours a week? Increase taxes on the household making an average of $70K a year so the government can subsidize his pay while he stays in a household making over twice the average household income? Does the pizza owner also deserve an adequate return on investment to make his risk worthwhile or should he also work for minimum wage at a larger corporation?
      • behringer 7y ago
        Why should we tax the poor? No, we should tax the rich, ramp that tax rate up to 90 percent for the highest brackets, and stop putting half our taxes to military. We'd suddenly have so much money we wouldn't know what all to spend it on.
        • scarface74 7y ago
          When you “tax the rich at 90%” it disincentivizes people from working - would you risk starting a business or working extra hours for only 10 cents to the dollar? Also, how do you classify “the rich”? People in the 90th percentile of household income? That would be approximately $130K a year. Finally, only 15% of federal spending goes to the military. Most of our spending is already for social security, Medicare, education, retirement benefits, etc. https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/policy-basics-w...
          • seanmcdirmid 7y ago
            This is why capital gain taxes are generally different from income taxes (the previous are lower and can be offset by losses to prevent risk taking). Social security and Medicare are funded directly via payroll taxes, they are not part of he general fund and you pay for them separately. Comparing them is like comparing medical insurance premiums or 401k savings to military spending.
            • scarface74 7y ago
              Social Security and Medicare taxes have always been mixed in with regular income taxes. The government “borrows” money from the social security fund and issues the funds IOUs. There is no separate account where money is stashed away and only spent on SS and Medicare.
              • seanmcdirmid 7y ago
                > Social Security and Medicare taxes have always been mixed in with regular income taxes No, they never had. In fact, 47% of the population doesn’t pay income taxes at all, just payroll taxes, which are capped rather than progressive (anti progressive, actually). The government does borrow money via IOUs to fund things like military mostly, but they also borrow money via treasuries, are you saying China’s export surplus should be mixed with regular income taxes as well?
                • scarface74 7y ago
                  Despite all of the accounting tricks, at the end of the day, “payroll taxes” are spent to fund every part of the government just like all of the other taxes. We just happen to have a surplus now. Once the tide turns and social security is running at a deficit, regular income tax will have to pay for social security. It’s all the same money.
                  • seanmcdirmid 7y ago
                    We already don’t have a surplus in payroll taxes, and will in a decade or two run out of the money already lent to the general fund. Still, that money has already been allocated and Americans have been paying for it specifically. If congress meant otherwise, they should have included it as a benefit paid for via taxes, but they didn’t set t up that way at all.