Taxes. How the upper-upper class avoids them,...

[DieboldMustDie]

and passes the burden onto everybody else.

Terry Gross interviews David Cay Johnston on Fresh Air today. Check local stations for broadcast times or go to http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?display=day&todayDate=01/07/2004

Prepare to be outraged :mad:

[Bozita]

1. This is a MUST HEAR show...especially on the eve of April 15

The Pulitzer winning reporter really lets go.

[papau]

2. I'll listen tonight -having watched the process I'm curious if Gross knows

the many many ways actually used by the rich - and ignored by the IRS.

[blondeatlast]

3. Great show, and Johnston was a very good guest. Conversational

AND informative.

His book is called:

Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich -- and Cheat Everybody Else

And, Oh yes, I am indeed OUTRAGED!!! :mad:

[ochazuke]

4. Yeah. I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore.

zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Outrage fatigue.


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[ringmastery]

5. I don't blame the rich people

If you had a legal loophole available to you to lower your taxes, wouldn't you take it?

It's the politicans who don't close these loopholes. They are the problem.

[Wapsie B]

7. However,

it's the wealthy who can hire lobbyists to carefully hand-craft any tax law that comes about.

[blondeatlast]

8. And why don't they?

Because the rich people are buying them off, LEGALLY.

[brainshrub]

6. In a progressive tax-system this is inevitable.

Sure, we could close the loop-holes...but new onces would arise.

We should switch to a flat-tax.

I know it's ugly on the surface, but a flat-tax would make sure everybody but the poorest would pay taxes.

Flame on!

[camero]

9. the poor would still pay taxes

The people who would really be ripped off would be the middle class with a flat tax.

[brainshrub]

12. Oh, like they aren't being ripped off now?

The simpler you make the system, the more equal it will become.

Even if it isn't perfect, it would beat the hell out of what we have now.

[apsuman]

10. the problem is...

The problem is that everytime you increase complexity in a system, any system, you create situations, let's say you create an environment where situations exist to exploit the system. I.e. loopholes.

The simplier the system the harder it is to create loopholes.

If our tax system could be defined on a postcard, there would be no loopholes.

[brainshrub]

11. That is EXACTLY why I support the flat tax.

Thanks for summing it up.

[stevebreeze]

13. progessivity is NOT the problem!

It is the myriad of deductions and exception to the tax code that are intentionally inserted into the tax code to insure that the right people don't have to pay their fair share. Many states have flat income taxes. Here in IL we have one. It results in the poor and middle class paying a higher share of their income in state taxes then the rich. check out WWW.CTJ.ORG

[stevebreeze]

14. much of this is really old information

if you like Johnson (and I do) go to your library and check out "America who pays the taxes" by Bartlett and Steel
:kick: