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Bat Guano

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Everything posted by Bat Guano

  1. Look up how a VAT works. You don't even have a rudimentary idea of what it is, so any explanation would be a waste of my time. Aggressive stupidity isn't going to get you very far, here or in life.
  2. What did I disagree with?
  3. Did you ride the bus to school today? How many seats were on the bus?
  4. Well, I know how a VAT works, so I got that going for me. Ignorance must really be bliss, from the way you're chasing it.
  5. It's really not hard to find out information about things you don't know. There's this thing called the internet, and you can look up all kinds of things. You should try it sometime.
  6. Here's a hint: it's not based on corporate profits.
  7. You don't know how a VAT works, apparently.
  8. So it's really neither here nor there, but now I'm kinda curious to see just how fucking bad Trump's grades at Fordham (LOfuckingL) and his SAT scores were. I mean, I've seen his tweets, so it's well known that he's a lazy, semi-literate baboon that can't be assed to correct obvious errors; it's equally well known that he is willfully oblivious to facts, in fact decidedly hostile to them, and stubbornly dedicated to outright misinformation; has the attention span of a fruit fly and the mental agility of a houseplant. None of that predicts a stellar academic career, and the cherry on top is that he had no reason to care whether he did well or not, because rich daddy. So I'm guessing he set some kind of record for abysmal performance, an academic career so wretchedly pathetic that its like shall never be seen again. And it's theoretically possible to get a negative score on the SATs; it would be interesting to see if he managed to pull that off. Maybe I'm easily amused, but I'm pretty sure I'd be entertained.
  9. Maybe there is a mechanism. Or maybe the end state is unknowable because there is no mechanism - it's just random. Why do you think nothingness is impossible?
  10. Those are all the ways humans have used to generate approximations of random numbers. I am not sure it says anything about the hypothetical case of a universe springing into existence out of nothingness, which is, I think, where this discussion is coming from. Quantum theory provides a different explanation of randomness from your three, and that is what would apply in the case of universe-origination. It's something that's hard, maybe impossible, for humans to truly comprehend, starting with the idea of true nothingness: no space, no time, no anything, that would be the starting point.
  11. Cohen is good at the disgusted head shake.
  12. Bullshit. Everybody knows you don't have any friends. I ravished your mom last night.
  13. OK, you're either trolling or you really are that stupid. Either way I'm done wasting time on this. You started off with the lie that the bottom 50% only pay a 3% effective tax rate. I pointed out that they pay more than that, and my back-of-the-envelope estimates put it about 20%, which was compared to your number of 27% paid by the rich. We were talking about effective rates paid by individuals. You haven't disputed any of that. Taxes paid by corporations have NOTHING to do with effective rates paid by individuals. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. It's a nice obfuscation technique, but that's all it is, so I'm done.
  14. What the fuck are you babbling about? Why the fuck should a random exec of a company get credit for the FICA taxes his company pays for its employees, including him? That makes no sense whatsoever. Where are you getting this shit? And in any case the main part of FICA, the SS portion, is capped at $128,000, so it's a regressive tax. And as I keep telling you, the company share of FICA is deductible, so that lessens its burden considerably for the corporation. And why shouldn't Walmart pay property taxes - I mean besides whatever tax reduction deal they can negotiate with the city or state? Are you really this stupid?
  15. We should debate what's a fair share. That's part of what Yang is trying to do. My original post on this subject was to call out your misleading bullshit about the bottom 50% only paying a 3% effective rate - kind of like you and other right wingers' dumb rhetoric that the poor have "no skin in the game." As I pointed out, and you haven't acknowledged, that's only true if you leave out most of the taxes they pay. Here's a hint: if the government takes it out of your paycheck, or charges you for it at the cash register, or sends you a bill for it, it's a tax. Federal income tax is not the only tax; the working poor pay a significant percentage of their income in taxes, and to try to minimize that fact is disingenuous.
  16. Who the fuck ever said the poor pay 'the same amount?' Quit making shit up. Obviously the rich pay more in absolute dollars, because - and stay with me here, I know this is complicated - they have more money. But in terms of effective rates - the percentage of their gross income that goes to taxes of any kind - they don't pay that much more. Sometimes they pay less; with the carried-interest loophole the billionaire hedge fund guys are paying 15%. I think a guy making $5 million a year can afford to have a bit more taken out of his gross, because he's benefited disproportionately from the system already. You'd rather stick your tongue up his ass because the corporation he works for pays the FICA tax for his workers, who are making him money - and then it deducts that payment anyway. When you take 15 to 20 percent of a minimum-wage worker's income, it hurts - it makes it hard to afford rent or food. That's not a problem for the 1%, though, is it? I think for the good of society a progressive tax system is not a bad thing - in fact it's pretty much essential.
  17. Scroll up 5 posts. Apples to apples, bro. Capital gains is part of the conversation since a large portion, very often a large majority, of executive compensation is in the form of stock options. You think Bezos takes a multi-billion dollar salary? Lulz.
  18. Amazon, huh? How much tax did they pay this year, again? Well, I'm sure their FICA writeoff was a contributing factor. In any case, since you're insisting that we compare apples to apples, what do you think Jeff Bezos' effective tax rate is? I'm guessing it's right around the capital gains rate of 20%. Which means a $12.50/hour worker in Amazon's Hartford, CT warehouse is paying a higher effective rate than he is.
  19. I'm using your number for the 27%. I'm pretty sure most of the 1% are not paying their employees' FICA taxes out of their own pockets, although I suppose a few individually owned private corporations may try to argue that. That deductible expense comes out of the corporation, so the CEO isn't paying it out of his salary. You may know this, but then again you sound like you're 12 years old, so maybe not. If you don't like my numbers, find your own. You didn't seem to have a problem with the Fed. tax rates.
  20. I gave you the outline already. Let's see those formidable math skilz. Federal income tax - 3.6%: your numbers, although you rounded it down to 3%. Lulz. FICA - 6.2% on up to $128,000 for SS; 1.45% for Medicare. None deductible for the employee, employer's contribution IS deductible. Sales tax - since poors spend most of their income on stuff, this is a pretty high percentage of the sales tax rate. Let's say 5%. Property tax - Poors pay it if they own a house, and the cost gets passed on to renters also. Let's say a conservative estimate of 3%. State income tax - in some states this will be a factor. Variable and usually progressive, so let's say a very conservative 2%. Total: 21.25%. Your figure for the 1% effective rate is 27%. Not such a big difference, is it? Feel free to dispute any of my figures; some of them are just estimates, and if you can find better information, let's see it. And in the mean time, stop lying.
  21. So why don't you make an honest argument about the effective rate the 1% pay, including all the various taxes, and the effective rate the bottom 50% pay, including all their taxes? Yeah, I know why: it wouldn't be that big a difference. Apparently you don't know what 'exponentially' means. Stop lying.
  22. I'll stop being ignorant as soon as you stop lying. You've been shown that the working poor pay more than 3%. Why are you still saying it? Are you afraid to make an honest argument based on what they actually pay?
  23. Disingenuous by not including all the taxes poor people pay - like FICA, which adds up to over 8% out of workers' paychecks, regardless of the employer contribution; sales tax; property tax; state income taxes. In many cases the effective tax rate comes out higher for the poors than for the accountanted class, who manage to take advantage of tax law idiosyncrasies that the less well off don't have access to. If you're going to make an argument about the effective tax rate the bottom 50% pay, then make an honest argument about the actual rate they pay, not one that excludes most of their tax payments.
  24. Maybe the meth was for the gerbil.
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