Incoming: The "Property" Question Challenging Washington's New Tax

[slightlv]

2. man, this is a loaded question!

I honestly don't have an opinion on this issue, itself... I'd have to sit and think long and hard on it and its ramifications. The one thing I DO have an opinion on, which I'll state since they brought up the IRS, is "Earned Income" vs "Unearned Income." I honestly think income HAS to be broken down along these lines or the word is useless. This faux capitalist society we have taxes earned income at the highest level they can get away with, and unearned income at the lowest they can get away with.

I believe if you've actually "earned" an income... did labor or service for someone... that income should be counted as "earned income" and taxed at the lowest level possible. Not only are you recognizing a societal good, but you also passively help set society ideals.

Unearned income (sometimes called 'passive' income, I think), should be taxed at the highest levels. The individual did nothing more than move digits in a database... if he even did that! This is how we got into the mess we're in. It's so much easier to become rich if your "income" isn't taxed because it's "passed through" or whatever they do with it to evade the taxes. The common person can't do that. Their income goes for living expenses. The rich live off us and stash away their returns on investment trades, and other types of hedge fund activity in far off countries that don't tax it at all.

So, one issue or not... the issue, as I see it, is NOT defined for anyone, let alone common people who only have a paycheck at the end of a month to somehow meet expenses through the next month.

I'm all for a millionaires tax... bend the tax brackets for the rich like we used to do when we were a prosperous, growing economy... back before the yuppies took over in the 70's and 80's. And tax Earned Income at the lowest level... if at all... If you want people who can work to work, reward them for working. Giving all kinds of tax breaks to unearned income is like throwing pearls before swine, IMO.

But that's just my opinion. I've always had a hardline when it comes to the word "income." It's especially true now after working a lifetime and seeing what a pittance of a living all that money taken from each paycheck brought me in SS today.