LogFAQs > #942275136

There needs to be limits, but limiting the wealth you can make per year is probably not one of them. That being said, taxing said wealth a larger percentage (and avoiding loopholes etc) does make sense, as long as it's done in a way that the wealth doesn't leave the country all together.

Some limits that really need to be implemented are:

limits on the cost to rent a place to live.

You can't let supply and demand and the market itself determine the cost for a person to actually have somewhere to live, because you end up in situations like we have now, and that will continue to get worse. It should never cost more then 1/2 the amount you can make in an area on min wage (40 hours) to rent a place (simple one bedroom), but enough of them need to be available so everyone can get one.

Currently in many places it costs almost 100% of what you can make in a 40 hour week on min wage, and in some places it costs more then 100%. It is not sustainable to have people need to work more than 40 hours just to have a roof over their head and food to eat.

Medical coverage needs to be limited in how much is charged, not how much insurance costs etc, but how much the actual charges are for the medical procedures, staying at a hospital etc. The amount charged in the US is insane, so even if you have a million dollar insurance cap, you can blow through it in a month of being sick, and then your screwed. People are making BILLIONS on the medical industry in this country, which is just insane. A cap on that should be enforced by the government as a basic right of the people.

Cap on education costs as well, same as medical, people are making billions on education, while putting all that on the population as a whole, so many people are in massive debt, while a few are running around with billions of dollars. It's disgusting. Again this should be a right of the citizens, and while you might charge for it (to pay teachers etc) the amount should be reasonable and effectively just pay for costs (which would be less then 1/20th of the current costs).

Straight up cap on number of people in prisons, end of story. There is no reason for any society to have such a large percentage of their population in prison or jail, and especially such a larger population that at one point was in prison or jail. IF your laws mandate so many people be incarcerated, then your laws are wrong. Period.

I'd also cap sales tax, and at much lower then 10%, I'm not sure exactly why this was ever enacted other than it makes great sense for the rich. It basically puts the onus on paying for things primarily on the poor or lower middle class. When you charge 11% sales tax on everything (like in my state) you basically reduce the buying power of the power or middle class by 11%, they don't have the income to easily handle that difference. You should not tax food (obviously) including food from eating out etc. Basic things that you need to survive should not be taxed at all, let alone at 11%.

That would be a good start at least, and do more than just capping wealth. To be honest the only way to even tax the wealthy more, is to keep the percentage lower than they can get other places (so less then 50% or so). That being said, making SURE they pay that amount and can't just use loopholes to pay 0% or 5% etc (like many wealthy do, and companies do etc), would make a huge difference and allow less taxes for the poor and middle class.

I'd basically increase the automatic deductions at this point from 12k (which isn't nearly enough to live most places) to 16k across the board (36 for if filing jointly). I'd maintain a 10% tax for any income from 16k to 40k, bump it to 15% for 40k to 60k, 20% for 60k to 100k and then increase it by 5% each 50k you make over that, up to a maximum of 45% total.

But tax is based on total accumulated wealth, you can't take tons of deductions etc, you can't invest the money to avoid paying taxes for now (other then something like a 401k which limits how much you can invest etc).

If you make 500k, you end up paying about 200k or a bit more in taxes and you plain out simply can't freaking avoid it.

IF that was implemented we would no longer have a deficit, the poor and middle class would have significantly more money to spend, and it wouldn't drastically impact the rich/wealthy at all. Combine that with some form of rent control, and you would see a massive improvement in the standard of living for most americans.

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