Excessive Taxation

[Naheeh]

This is one of those things. Our prisons are overcrowded and we're paying and arm and an ***hole in taxes to house these folks. And a hell of a lot of them are there for drug offenses period. I feel it's more humanitarian to tax the drugs so that we can TREAT these people instead of tossing them in prison where they "network" with other criminals and start down the wrong road.

Personally, those who commit a murder, rape, child abuse or other violent crime - have a group of 5 attorneys all working together to find the truth - then the facts are presented to a jury and if the person is found guilty they're taken out back immediately and never come back.

 

[Navy Pride]

This is one of those things. Our prisons are overcrowded and we're paying and arm and an ***hole in taxes to house these folks. And a hell of a lot of them are there for drug offenses period. I feel it's more humanitarian to tax the drugs so that we can TREAT these people instead of tossing them in prison where they "network" with other criminals and start down the wrong road.

Personally, those who commit a murder, rape, child abuse or other violent crime - have a group of 5 attorneys all working together to find the truth - then the facts are presented to a jury and if the person is found guilty they're taken out back immediately and never come back.

If they need someone to pull the switch I will volunteer......

 

[mistermain]

Personally, those who commit a murder, rape, child abuse or other violent crime - have a group of 5 attorneys all working together to find the truth - then the facts are presented to a jury and if the person is found guilty they're taken out back immediately and never come back.

My dilema here is that I want to throw the book at these people, but I do not believe in the death penalty. Once again, if I had it my way we would banish these people to an island where they are left to fend for themselves. Of course it would still have to be guarded, which would require some tax dollars.

You are right though in the respect with the death penalty. The reason it is not effective as a deterrent is that it is not carried out quickly enough. People are just not afraid, because they no they will die of old age before their sentence is carried out.

 

[TimmyBoy]

I doubt that killing drug pushers in less than a year after he was caught and convicted would detur drug pushers or people who use drugs. If you want to stop drug pushers, you have to take away the demand. Throwing people into prisons won't take away the demand because they will just stay high while they are in prison. Prisoners have an easy time smuggling drugs in. To deal with the drug problem you must eliminate the demand for drugs, then their will be no more pushers. You would be surprised at what sort of people buy from drug pushers. Lawyers, judges, respected members of society. Some of the very people who put drug pushers behind bars are buying and using drugs. You got super models, hollywood stars hooked on drugs. Rich and poor kids. It's a social problem. So, here is a question I have, why is their such a problem with drugs in our society?

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

This thread's about taxes, not recreational pharmaceuticals.

But taxing drug sales on the retail level would not bring in a lot of money. The reason drug habits are expensive today is the scarcity enforced by the contraband status of most drugs.

Make drugs legal and the high cost of smuggling and selling evaporates. All that would happen is that the government would be the new pusher. But this belongs on a different thread.

 

[George_Washington]

I just don't know how someone can say we need to pay more taxes or that excessive taxation is a good thing. HELLO?

 

[Navy Pride]

I just don't know how someone can say we need to pay more taxes or that excessive taxation is a good thing. HELLO?

George, Liberals love to spend money on failed social programs as long as it is not theirs and its the taxpayers.........

 

[jallman]

I dont think we pay too much in taxes as much as I think we tax the wrong way. I got a raise at my job...supposed to be a good thing, right? WRONG!! I got my first paycheck after my raise and my take home was lower than it had been before. The raise was just enough to throw me into the next highest tax bracket, but not enough to absorb the extra taxes I would be paying. Now why should I be penalized for performing well and making better money than the next guy? Thats the problem I see with taxation the way we do it now.

 

[Navy Pride]

I dont think we pay too much in taxes as much as I think we tax the wrong way. I got a raise at my job...supposed to be a good thing, right? WRONG!! I got my first paycheck after my raise and my take home was lower than it had been before. The raise was just enough to throw me into the next highest tax bracket, but not enough to absorb the extra taxes I would be paying. Now why should I be penalized for performing well and making better money than the next guy? Thats the problem I see with taxation the way we do it now.

when your wealthy contrary to what the left says you pay the bulk of the taxes......That is a fact of life my liberal friend..........

 

[ALiberalModerate]

I dont think we pay too much in taxes as much as I think we tax the wrong way. I got a raise at my job...supposed to be a good thing, right? WRONG!! I got my first paycheck after my raise and my take home was lower than it had been before. The raise was just enough to throw me into the next highest tax bracket, but not enough to absorb the extra taxes I would be paying. Now why should I be penalized for performing well and making better money than the next guy? Thats the problem I see with taxation the way we do it now.

Ok wait a minute. Sounds like a problem with your withholdings then. Our Tax system is progressive. The only thing you would have been taxed at a higher rate on is the amount that brought you over into the higher tax bracket. Its a common missconception about our tax system.

I cant think of the exact brackets off the top of my head, but for example:

If the first bracket is 25k and that rate is 10%
The second bracket is 50k and that rate is 15%
The third bracket is 75k and that rate is 25%

For someone earning 55k a year.
Their first 25k is taxed at 10%
Their pay that falls between 25 and 50k is taxed at 15%
Their pay that falls between 50k and 60k us taxed at 25%

Bill Gates pays no more in taxes on his first 30k a year than his maid does.

That is why it is a much fairer system than some on the right would like to portray it as.

 

[Naheeh]

Yup. Couldn't make that much $ with drug sales. It's not like we bring in anything with cigarette sales.

Ideally, yes - it would be great it we could take away the addiction to drugs. How do you propose we do that?

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

Ideally, yes - it would be great it we could take away the addiction to drugs. How do you propose we do that?

Shoot the addicts and tell the kids thinking about taking drugs that drugs kill.

 

[Naheeh]

Omigod!

I think we gotta figure out who uses drugs and why and then put programs in place that are actually effective to prevent kids from using.

Yeah. Good luck getting that enigma figured out and untangled.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

The nation should stop telling adults what they can and cannot do with their bodies.

Does anyone really care if some idiot destroys his life with heroin, crack, crystal meth, ecstasy, or alcohol? Why? Don't you have enough problems of your own to deal with?

If they want to ruin themselves, including dying, it's not my business, so long as they don't clog the gutters and ruin my wheel alignment.

Okay, if you want, once the criminal sanction on drugs are removed, take 10% of the money currently wasted on enforcement of prohibition and finance re-hab centers. But also give away free pure heroin and sterile needles, but randomly lace the H with strycchnine, to restore the thrill of the old days.

No. I don't care about those people. Let 'em die and be done with it.

That's the best way of treating the problem in a free society. At the best, all you bleeding hearts can man your own, privately funded, rehab clinics. That's freedom, isn't it?

 

[Naheeh]

Well, that's harsh. Ouch! But the piece I do agree with is that the government needs to let people be more responsible for themselves and their communities. I feel this is what our founding fathers were talking about. The only way a system like ours can work at it's most efficient is to have people be self-reliant.

Welfare was the BIGGEST, most horrendous decision ever made. It's led the way to the entitlement mentality which is dragging this country right down the tubes.

Remove welfare and taxes (and every entitlement program out there) and THEN, when a neighbor truly NEEDS help, the community can help them. I can imagine that almost anyone who has the means to help a neighbor who is, for example, a housewife (who did well enough in high school to attend college because she wants to be self-sufficient if necessary) with 4 small children and recently widowed, would. One reason is because you know that you'll help for a year or two and she'll find a way to get back on her feet because that's how she is (and she recognizes that eventually people get sick of giving to the same person).

However, if you had a neighbor who is smoking crack, buying cigarettes but wants you to supply food and has 6 kids with 6 different dads (she thinks), hasn't done a lick to care for herself - didn't finish high school even though this was offered to her free of charge (because she'd have to work) - you'd say, "You're on your own."

And if we get rid of entitlement programs, it'll all but clear up our other biggest national disaster - illegal immigration.

I know the race card may be brought up by our liberal friends, but guess what? People of any race can still make choices. And people wanting to immigrate can do so legally.

It's the only way for those who deserve help to get it and those who do not, not to get it. When no government programs exist to offer help, people will have the money and inclination to help those who deserve help. Those who are making really awful choices will have to clean up or go the way of the dinosaurs.

 

[cnredd]

The nation should stop telling adults what they can and cannot do with their bodies.

Does anyone really care if some idiot destroys his life with heroin, crack, crystal meth, ecstasy, or alcohol? Why? Don't you have enough problems of your own to deal with?

If they want to ruin themselves, including dying, it's not my business, so long as they don't clog the gutters and ruin my wheel alignment.

Okay, if you want, once the criminal sanction on drugs are removed, take 10% of the money currently wasted on enforcement of prohibition and finance re-hab centers. But also give away free pure heroin and sterile needles, but randomly lace the H with strycchnine, to restore the thrill of the old days.

No. I don't care about those people. Let 'em die and be done with it.

That's the best way of treating the problem in a free society. At the best, all you bleeding hearts can man your own, privately funded, rehab clinics. That's freedom, isn't it?

Agreed...

The government should take over the distribution of all cocaine & heroin....

They should make them 100% pure and push them out into the streets, free of charge, in mass quantities...

A week later you break out the brooms and sweep up the bodies...Problem solved...

 

[Naheeh]

nonononono!!!!!!!!!!!

The government should have regulation over drugs so they can be purchased legally with a BIG tax attached to them to cover treatment centers and prevention programs which are privatized and highly competitive - leading to the best programs we've ever seen.

But people who choose to buy a ton of drugs and overdose will do so, just as they do now with legal medications/drugs. It's their choice.

Look - if I decide to eat 3 lbs. of bacon and 2 dozen eggs with sticky buns and vodka on the side for breakfast, a box of chocolates and butter for lunch and a 5 lb. steak with deep fat fried french fries drenched in ranch dressing for dinner, it's my choice. THAT SAID, I shouldn't expect national health care to take care of me when I have my first heart attack at age 30.

And I've worked with addicts who have said that their food addictions have been harder to get past than their drug addiction. Maybe we SHOULD outlaw bacon!

People must have consequences for their behavior or we wind up with entitlement (read: people not evacuating during the hurricane and then standing on the roof with a sign that says, "Save me." or people on welfare saying they don't have enough money for their big screen t.v. or illegals complaining that their kids can't attend college for free.).

The only way for people to do their best is for their best to be expected. Now, with the "no child left behind" program in schools, all the kids are being totally dumbed down. Pisses me off.