Thursday 12 October 2006

Tax cuts

Here's two reasons why we need tax cuts:
Reason the first: Leaving money in the hands of the productive allows us to be even more productive with it. Give a dollar to the government and they turn it into thirty cents. Keep that dollar with the people who produced it they'll turn it into two dollars, then four, then ...
Here's the second reason: IT'S OUR BLOODY MONEY! Give it back.
As I heard Rodney Hide explaining the point on the radio yesterday, tax cuts are good when the economy is shrinking because the cuts stimulate growth and let people keep their own money; tax cuts are good when the economy is shrinking because the cuts stimulate growth and let people keep their own money; and tax cuts are good when the economy is growing because the cuts stimulate growth and let people keep their own money.

You see the point? It's your money, not theirs! You should demand it back.

LINK: It's Your Money! - Fulton Huxtable, Free Radical (1999)

RELATED: Politics-NZ, Economics

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This arrived in my inbox a few weeks before the election. It's still relevant today. It illustrates a few myth's regarding tax cuts:
- - - - - - - - - -
Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

* The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
* The fifth would pay $1.
* The sixth would pay $3.
* The seventh $7.
* The eighth $12.
* The nineth $18
* The tenth man (the wealthiest) would pay $59.


So, that's what they decided to do.The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one 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 ten only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, with the poorest paying little to nothing and the wealthiest, the most. So, the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six, the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share"? The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being 'PAID' to eat their meal. So,the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

* The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
* The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
* The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
* The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
* The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
* The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).


Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four 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 man (the "wealthy" one) "but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right, "exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar,too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man."Why should he get $10 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

Sound familiar?

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison."We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

Sound familiar?

So the nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore.There are lots of good restaurants in Europe and the Caribbean .