[High Max]

Or maybe a way to force those who have abundance to share and put out more to society. If that is the case, it's good, as long as it goes to a needy and good cause and not more rich people who don't need that money. Sadly, it most likely doesn't go to a good cause and there is probably no way to know where it goes.

So many advantages to having a financial balance and not being rich. Being in the middle sounds like the best way to have the most pros with the least cons.

[iamzack]

If you're making $100 million a year, and the government takes 90%, you are left with $10 million.  Cry me a river.

[SpardaSon21]

Zack, you make $100 million a year, let the government take 90%, then tell me how it feels.

[redsniper]

It would feel frakkin great to have $10,000,000.

[High Max]

Zack, you make $100 million a year, let the government take 90%, then tell me how it feels.

With those numbers, it doesn't make a difference unless you are greedy. Not really a difference between 100 million and 10 million unless you are greedy. There is pretty much no need to have anymore than 1 or 2 million in an entire life time, even in an expensive country like USA, since it is enough to pay for yourself and many people for the rest of your life if you use it wisely.

Of course the true gifts are intelligence, health, and managing to have a person who truly loves you, not money. Those achievements are what gives someone true happiness more so than money. Thinking about money as number one is selfish.

[Flipside]

I'd assume the ridiculously high pay was a buffer against exactly that level of Tax and budget myself on 10 million a year (Heh, you don't budget 10 million, you just splurge for 365 days, but you get my point), much the same way as, when you spend money, and sales tax is added invisibly, the price you see takes that into account for you.

[SpardaSon21]

First off High Max, having money is good.  Having money means you can buy things.  Having more money means you can buy better things.  You may not want to live in a nice house with a beautiful ocean view, but some people do, and you need money to do that as there is only so much coastline.

And Flipside, I wouldn't assume that.  A business paying $100 million isn't intending for their employee to only make $10 million with 90% tax rates.  They are offering $100 million because they think their employee is worth $100 million.  Business don't set wage scales based on take-home pay for their employees, they set wages based on how much they are willing to pay for a certain amount of work.  If a business is offering $100 million with 90% taxes, there's a good chance they will offer that same $100 million with 10% taxes, since the business paying the wage is still losing the same amount of money despite the differences in tax rates.  Only, with higher tax rates the employee loses since a larger portion of their income is confiscated by the government.

EDIT: If we assume business pay based on take-home pay, then higher tax rates do make a difference in pay, since a business will pay less per employee for the same amount of take-home pay if taxes are lower.  The employee still makes the same amount of money, and the business has more flexibility in money since less is taken by the government.  The employer can either keep wages the same, possibly offering more than businesses that lowered wages to save costs, or they could lower wages and put that money towards more hires or new equipment, both of those increasing productivity and stimulating economic activity.

[Kosh]

Btw, did anyone else watch John Stewarts interview with that Kristol guy from the weekly standard last month? I just recently got caught up on The Daily Show, and when I heard say something to the effect of "The military has the best healthcare because they deserve the best, but ordinary Americans don't deserve the best", yes he actually did say something like that and the crowd just went totally silent. I think that sums up the REAL thinking behind the GOP's position with regards to this issue.

[SpardaSon21]

Wasn't there this big hullabaloo a while ago about shoddy care for American veterans?  If that's the best in government care, I don't want it.

[Nuclear1]

The "hullabuloo" was about shoddy treatment at Walter Reed and the subsequent firing of people responsible. The rest of it surrounds the lack of understand and thus inability to treat post traumatic stress disorder and the resulting mass suicides in soldiers returning from the war. All of these situations have improved tremendously, and I would prefer TriCare over any civilian insurance plan any day of the week.

Sleep medications? Paid for.

Glasses? Free.

Annual dental checkup and any necessary oral surgery or cleaning? Free.

Any day of the week, Tricare > all.

[xXGrifterXx]

If you're making $100 million a year, and the government takes 90%, you are left with $10 million.  Cry me a river.

So the government takes the 90 million, which can't be invested into new business. That's really bad economics, and your punishing a person who probably worked really hard to make that money. I would be pissed  

[SpardaSon21]

The "hullabuloo" was about shoddy treatment at Walter Reed and the subsequent firing of people responsible. The rest of it surrounds the lack of understand and thus inability to treat post traumatic stress disorder and the resulting mass suicides in soldiers returning from the war. All of these situations have improved tremendously, and I would prefer TriCare over any civilian insurance plan any day of the week.

Sleep medications? Paid for.

Glasses? Free.

Annual dental checkup and any necessary oral surgery or cleaning? Free.

Any day of the week, Tricare > all.

Nuclear, there's a big difference between a soldier who's willing to lay his life down for his country and an ordinary citizen.  Or, if that isn't a good reason, the government is the soldier's employer, and as such can provide whatever medical care it wants.  The federal government and I have no such employer/employee agreement.

[Nuclear1]

Oh, do shutup.  I'm not a servant of the federal government or the President, I'm a servant of the people of the United States of America and the Constitution. I'm a citizen of the United States of America first, and an Airman second. I enjoy my benefits: free undergraduate education, free healthcare, and the government controlling the APR on my credit cards. It's only fair that the rest of the US be granted the same liberties.

Next time you try to talk down an American servicemember and dare say the people he volunteered to serve with his life don't deserve the same standard of living as him simply because they're not "employees of the federal government", think twice. Think long and hard. Has your argument against healthcare reform really sunk that low? 

[General Battuta]

Owned.

[iamzack]

Oh, also, by the way, I haven't done **** for America and I'm an ordinary citizen and I still get Tri-care. Thanks for paying for my health care, fellow citizens!

Anyway, by the logic of some people being worth more than others, why don't all children have free health care like Tri-Care? They haven't done anything yet, but they might, you know? Oh, and maybe really pretty people should get free health care too, since they make America look nicer.

[Mars]

SpardaSon, answer me this:

What could anyone do to DESERVE  $10,000,000 a year?

Working at Dairy Queen, light work one can make $7 an hour and $5,000 a year

Working in landscaping, back-breaking work one can make $12 and $30,000 a year

My father is a programmer for a military contractor, he makes $60,000

What can anyone do for society that deserves that (10¹⁰) much money?

[High Max]

Be a superhero?

I really don't think anyone needs that much. Only those who are selfish and not strong enough to handle life without luxary or the slightest bit of discomfort and too whiny and picky. I'd hate to become like that. That's my 2 cents.

[Slasher]

It would be interesting to see how many people here actually have health insurance, and of those, how many have it provided by their employer, how many get it from the government, how many pay for it themselves, and how many get it from mommy and daddy. 

[Colonol Dekker]

The Trumps and the Gates are examples of high earning businessmen.
 
Fact.
 
Soldiers deserve the best healthcare, but corporate saved my life. So end of the day it's circumstantial.

[xXGrifterXx]

SpardaSon, answer me this:

What could anyone do to DESERVE  $10,000,000 a year?

Working at Dairy Queen, light work one can make $7 an hour and $5,000 a year

Working in landscaping, back-breaking work one can make $12 and $30,000 a year

My father is a programmer for a military contractor, he makes $60,000

What can anyone do for society that deserves that (10¹⁰) much money?

What you get paid is pretty much based on your skillset. Duh!