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The Annoyed Man wrote:Again, I understood his message. I disagreed with it, but I understood it. But I did not hit the boiling point until that sanctimonious creep took the conversation there. The reaction is on his head. In broad terms, roughly 1% of taxpayers pay 95% of all federal taxes, and 47% pay NO taxes (so technically, they aren't even "taxpayers"), and the remaining 52% of taxpayers pay about 5% of all federal taxes There isn't a single member of that non-taxpaying 47% who have who built any single part of my business. I BUILT IT! MY effort. MY financial investment. MY risk. MY hard work, long hours, short pay, and little sleep. They didn't even pay for the technologies which made my business possible. And they aren't even the ones who will buy my services because A) they have no use for them; and B) they mostly can't afford them. Since that 1% who paid 95% of the taxes—again of which the 47% paid none—paid for the roads that the 47% use to get to their jobs or to drive to the welfare office, I reject that they had anything to do with building my business. That is simply untrue. Furthermore, that portion of those who fall between the 47% and the 1%, in other words, those who collectively paid about 5% of all taxes paid, and who actually DID build the roads that I use......GOT PAID FOR IT. It wasn't their gift to me, or anybody else. In fact, many of them were members of unions which extorted exorbitant contracts out of the contracting firms which were contracted to build the roads, thereby driving up the cost of the contracts to the entire taxpayer base.

Your numbers are WAY off. The top 50% pay 95% (actually closer to 98% - http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) but the top 1% only pay 36% - and that is only a measure of the federal personal income tax.

That top 1% also brings home 25% of the nations income and they control 40% of the nations wealth (http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ti ... 22655.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). Yep, it sounds like they are being taxed to death.

Jumping Frog wrote:Well, if you want to defend him, how about admitting the other side of that coin is true. The 47% of Americans that take from the government instead paying any taxes got their because they squandered all the same advantages and opportunities, functioning as a taker instead of contributor.

That statement is a bit extreme. I agree with some of it, but not completely.

I admit that there are some Americans who take from society and do not provide anything in return, but it's not as high as 47%, that is an artificially high number because it is based on only 1 of the taxes we all pay. 47% may not pay federal income tax, but they certainly pay lots of other taxes (sales, property, fuel, etc). I don't know about you, but my federal income tax bill is only a small part of the taxes I pay throughout the year.

Some of those who take more than they receive from society are there because they squandered every opportunity in their life, but quite a few are there because they did not get many opportunities.

I know I have had quite a few opportunities in my life provided by the situations my family was able to put me. I squandered many of them and made good use of others. Consequently, I am comfortably middle class. I know that I have not had any where close to the same sorts of opportunities that were provided to someone like Mitt Romney during his life. I also know that I was given significant advantages over a kid who grew up living day to day in a hotel or homeless shelter with parents who had very little education or money.

Can a kid coming from a poor uneducated family make his life turn out great? Absolutely, but it is much harder and far less likely than if your parents were Harvard graduates.

Can you honestly tell me that a single mom HS dropout, who works for $8 per hour, lives in an inner city hotel where she raises 3 kids can provide her kids with the same opportunities in life that a doctor mom and lawyer dad making $400k per year would be able to provide for their kids?

I'm certainly not saying that government charity is the best answer, but its part of the answer. If you were having a conversation about this with Jesus do you think you would be able to convince him that he should be against paying an extra 3-5% income tax next year?

The sound bite makes it sound like he is taking away all credit for individual accomplishment, but the entire statement is far from that and his point is valid.

What we achieve is not in a vacuum. We all benefit from the society we live in, including the infrastructure and security our government provides.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.

Yes, some of his words could have been chosen better when you put it all in context and give it some rational thought you can see that it is true.