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We're already taxing the rich. "The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (37.3 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (30.5 percent)." The problem here isn't the rich not paying taxes, it's the government. -taxfoundation.org/summary-latest

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@mastrep83

Jan 28, 2021

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@Aella_Girl

Top marginal tax rate from 1930 to 1970 was between 70% & 90%. It has been too low since 1980s. It is why we have seen CEO pay explode, the wealth gap increase, and the middle class shrink. It’s bad for society in general.

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and

Nothing worse for society than people not having enough of their money stolen by the government

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and

Taxation is not stealing. This is the stupidest argument. We all benefit from government services. And the rich benefit the most by far. I know this isn’t the story they sell you though. They have you focus on the peanuts that are given to poor people.

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and

Seems like you're making a lot of assumptions about what I believe and I doubt you have any interest in an actual discussion taxation is theft though

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and

Taxation is not theft. That is an imbecilic canard only believed by non-serious people and ideologues.

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idk wtf you wanna call it. There used to be 0% income tax, and then the government started taking a part of people's income. I do NOT want them to do this, and I am powerless to stop them taking MY property. You could argue that it's necessary theft, but not that it's *not* theft

2:00 AM · Jan 28, 2021

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Even when there was 0% income tax, there were still other forms of taxes.

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Look, fundamentally, we can skip to the part where we disagree about what you are entitled to. It is not theft because you are not entitled to some portion of what you are claiming is your property.

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That thing when you don't realize that they used the term tariffs instead of taxes back then. Same thing, different word.

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And from my experience having had this discussion many many times, this disagreement is a lot like the anti/pro abortion positions vis a vis abortion being murder. In light of that, I apologize for my own inflammatory language towards

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They started collecting income tax as a result of the Great Depression. They instituted a lot of things designed to safe guard us a population from that sort of devastation happening again. That coupled with WW 2 and the new deal led to the largest middle class in history.

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Theft feels too extreme a word. As a society, we passed laws that allow for the collection of taxes. As a society we benefit from those taxes. (Roads, education, defense, police, etc..)

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The real question for me here: why the fuck do you *not* want the government to have a part of that money, so it can be used to benefit everyone?

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The govt defines theft in the law and has also defined tax as “not theft” Words have meanings.

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I have no problem if taxation equates to the use of social services and gives a benefit for the betterment of humanity. I do believe that income tax would be lower if the 1% took an appropriate taxation. The problem is people "think" taxing more of the rich is unnecessary.

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