irseg

I think this is an old one, but it bears repeating, especially considering all the people who think tax cuts "give" money to the rich...

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Every night, 10 men met at a restaurant for dinner. At the end of the meal, the bill would arrive. They owed $100 for the food that they shared.

Every night they lined up in the same order at the cash register. The first four men paid nothing at all. The fifth, grumbling about the unfairness of the situation, paid $1. The sixth man, feeling very generous, paid $3. The next three men paid $7, $12 and $18, respectively.

The last man was required to pay the remaining balance, $59. He realized that he was forced to pay for not only his own meal but the unpaid balance left by the first five men.

The 10 men were quite settled into their routine when the restaurant threw them into chaos by announcing that it was cutting its prices.

Now dinner for the 10 men would only cost $80. This clearly would not affect the first four men. They still ate for free. The fifth and sixth men both claimed their piece of the $20 right away. The fifth decided to forgo his $1 contribution. The sixth pitched in $2. The seventh man deducted $2 from his usual payment and paid $5. The eighth man paid $9. The ninth man paid $12, leaving the last man with a bill of $52.

Outside of the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings, and angry outbursts began to erupt.

The sixth man yelled, "I only got $1 out of the $20, and he got $7," pointing at the last man.

The fifth man joined in. "Yeah! I only got $1 too. It is unfair that he got seven times more than me."

The seventh man cried, "Why should he get $7 back when I only got $2?"

The nine men formed an outraged mob, surrounding the 10th man.

The first four men followed the lead of the others: "We didn't get any of the $20. Where is our share?"

The nine angry men carried the 10th man up to the top of a hill and lynched him.

The next night, the nine remaining men met at the restaurant for dinner.

But when the bill came, there was no one to pay it.

meanSpleen

You lost me. This isn't a tax. What the guys were doing was voluntary, and they had a choice to either:
a) Pay equal amounts
b) Pay amounts equal to what they could afford
c) Pay amounts as agreed upon (which they were doing)
d) Not Pay, and not eat.

They agreed upon an amount at the beginning, even though some members, especially Number 10 were not happy about it.

Enter the Price Cut.

Again, I don't see Tax. Nominally, Number 10 saved the most money. Everyone here can probably agree that 7 dollars saved is more than savings of 6, 3, 2, or 1 dollars. But in the ratio of amount saved, Number 10 saved the least. Ignore Number 1-4, because you cannot divide by Zero.

Number five saved 100 percent (1/1)
Number six saved 33 percent (1/3)
Number seven saved 29 percent (2/7)
Number eight saved 25 percent (3/12)
Number nine saved 33 percent (6/18)
Number ten saved 12 percent (7/59)

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I think the point trying to be made is that, "Even though the rich have the lowest tax rate, they pay the most in actual dollars"

The example is just flawed.

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bobmsmythe

Typical conservative bullshit.

Bob

irseg

Care to explain you you think that?

meanSpleen -- it's an allegory. Geez, I'm about as literal-minded as they come, and I see a blatantly obvious connection between that restaurant bill and our tax system.

Just replace "restaurant bill" with "tax" and assume that it's set up the way it is because the first seven or so outnumber the last three so they can get away with shifting the burden to them. Then re-read.

Cynthetiq

the story really works more about how tax cuts affect the people, not really how taxes work.

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Bigwahzoo

I would like to know where these numbers come from. According to this story 60% of the people only pay 4% of the taxes. For some reason I am having a hard time believing that these numbers are accurate.

gar1976

If I remember right, it's something like the top 10% of US taxpayers pay 90% of the taxes.

Ustwo

they are pretty close.

Top 50% pays 96% of the taxes

Top 10% pays 64.9% of the taxes.

Top 5% pays 53.25% of the taxes.

So the bottom 50% pay the other 4%.

The story is off by 10%, which doesn't change it at all.

By definition all tax cuts help the rich more since the rich are the only ones paying taxes, at least income taxes.

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