07-14-2004, 10:11 AM
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#61 (permalink)
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Banned
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I worked my way through undergraduate and graduate school; I grew up in a family without much money - but my parents gave me the best of all possible legacies: a sense of responsibility and self-respect.
That aside, here is a lesson:
Link
Quote:
Eat The Rich
I can't claim that this is accurate, but it sounds about right...it's one of those e-mails that makes the rounds, similar to an urban legend, but concerning tax cuts. I'm posting it to see if anyone can attest to the accuracy, or poke holes in it...
"The Tax System and Tax cuts in terms that most people can understand."
Suppose that every day, ten men of various means go out for dinner. The bill for all ten men (@ $10 each) comes to $100. They decided to pay their bill in the same way we pay our taxes. The story went 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 ninth $18.
The tenth man - the richest - would pay $59.
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. So...
...So now dinner for the ten only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. 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 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.
So now the fifth man paid nothing,
the sixth pitched in $2,
the seventh paid $5,
the eighth paid $9,
the ninth paid $12,
leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59.
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. "But he got $7!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!" "That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth (wealthiest) man and beat him up. The next night tending to his injuries, 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 were $52 short!
And that, boys and girls (and you journalists, and college professors)
is how cuts in the tax system works.
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