Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble
Not the American one, at least. In the American system, the end-count of your income determines which percentage bracket you're in, and that percentage applies to all of the dollars. So in a pure count with no other factors, a person making $99,900 a year would indeed take home more than the person making $100,000.
But of course there are tons and tons of deductions, which lower the end-count of what counts as your "income," and there are credits, where the government just gives you a certain amount back regardless of what percentage you are at, or whether you even owe that much in taxes in the first place, and there are deferred taxes, and certain types of money taxed at special rates, etc., etc....
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and multi quoting many others...
Dear Clodfobble,
I wish to use this mistake of yours as an example. Please don't take it personally, I assure you there's a genuine, albeit backhanded compliment here. I admire you greatly and I think you are a very smart person. Not just intellectually, but I also believe you are well informed about lots of things, politics included.
That someone as smart and well informed as you could be mistaken about this is, to me, a clear sign of the degree of misinformation out there. Think, people! If CF could be mislead, how can we mere mortals have any hope of discerning reality???!!!
Seriously, it's no biggie, but it does show that our system is very complicated (we haven't begun talking about different kinds of "income", deductions, etc etc), and the rules that make up this complication are made by the people with the money, not by us working joes and jills. In whose favor do you believe those rules have been written? In the clamor for change we're subject to now, who will benefit? These are hard questions. It is crucial to listen and pay attention.