I pay about 36% in norway, so if i make $1000 i take $640 home. Its ok I guess.

FLAT INCOME TAX PLZ KTHX

Willy, this is exactly my point there are just so many of them. Is it like that in other countries. I know that many (more socialist) countries have a "wealth tax" where they actually tax you for having too many assets. You left out capital gains, plus that damn tax on tea that the brits make us pay.

"have a "wealth tax" where they actually tax you for having too many assets"

how about personal property tax?

That's the whole point though, they already do - yet a large portion of the population still doesn't seem to think that the "rich" pay enough.

Hell, if they let the tax cuts expire and take the cap off of social security the way Obama wants, we'll be paying over 50%.

Depends on your bracket obviously, but for every grand I make I take home about $730-780. I've been having a hard job keeping track because they've been deducting benefits and I've had a few early leaves etc. But it's around that. But I make fucking peanuts.

I would say of course, that this is still all relative.

In certain northern Scandinavian countries taxes are between 70-80% of their pay. But they also have things like pensions, (not an obsolete social security system which our congress has been over drawing for decades, and gen x/gen yers are going to be hit with the massive over draft fees by the time we plan on retiring), universal healthcare, 100% funded higher education (which coicides with a 100% literacy rate as well.) And at the end of the year, these tax payers will still recieve a tax rebate on money that their governments do not spend.

The highest single fed tax rate in the US was at close to 91% for the highest bracket during WWII. Fed Taxes remained at over 50% for the highest bracket well into the 60's.

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=j>Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
A fair quote from the person that introduced the wellfare state/society to the US during a time that it was desperately needed.

Would I like to keep more of my take home pay? YES!?!?! but do I also believe that it is up to the better off members of society to watch out for the wellfare of the less well off. This is what makes us a civilized nation, this is what creates a civil society. Though the pork barrel buffet of the US congress still makes me sick everytime I hear of a $315 million dollar bridge to nowhere by Senator Stevens, or Congressman Young makes my blood boil and my head @$$plode...

I'm glad that FDR decided what was best for this country, who needs the Constitution anyway? I believe that we deserve the fruits of our labors. I don't mind shipping 25% of my paycheck (Fed Income Tax, SS, Medicare, State Income Tax) to the government to help pay for all the stuff that I use like roads, schools, public transportation and what not.

What I don't understand is that I pay almost twice as much to Social Security as I do to my 401k, yet when I retire my 401k will give me access to almost 3 million dollars (using the 401k calculator on Fidelity) and if I'm lucky I may get a check fro $300 a month for all the money I put into Social Security. It doesn't work. Instead of forcing people to contribute to Social Security, we should force them to invest that percentage in the stock market, it's for their own good and it will benefit them infinitely more than any social welfare program could.

I could care less about 100% funded higher education or 100% literacy because then my degree won't be worth anything. You can't give someone a life, they have to earn it.

READ MY LIPS, NO MORE TAXES!

I wish.

Well for later in my life anyways.

I'd like to see the upper class get capped at %40ish, middle class %30ish, lower class %20ish on income taxes, I'd really rather have a %10 income tax cap, and a much higher sales tax on luxury items and a significantly higher sales tax on neccesity items like food.

Cost of living would go way up but so would Avg income, at least with a consumption based tax you're encouraged to save rather than spend.

A single penny taxed that does not directly contribute to necessities for our society is too much. "Necessities" are defined as military, roads, police, fire departments, prisons, courts, etc. Art is not a necessity. Neither is research on the mating habits of Bolivian pelicans.

If the founding fathers of the United States would have been able to foresee the disgusting abomination that our tax system would become, I am fairly certain that they never would have bothered with the Revolutionary War.

i was watching one of those Ron Paul videos (and by no means am I a Ron Paul nut) but he stated that the amount of money that the federal government collected in 2006 in just fees and taxes outside the income tax was the same amount that was allocated for the whole budget in 2000. Thats pretty sickening to me. The government will keep growing and the politicians will keep promising stuff until we are absolutley broke, and not able to borrow anymore

This is a topic that really gets me heated. The fact that someone thinks it should be nessiccary (or even acceptable) for someone to take 40 or 45% of every dollar I earn, is just absurd. There is NO REASON that I should have more than 15-20% TOTAL (state and federal) taken out of my pay. The only reason they take more is to pay themselves, and stupid, lazy people who dont work and/or cant afford things. Give me back my fucking money and shut the fuck up. If you want money, go out and work like the rest of us....lazy asstards...

"Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt"

if I don't like your organized society, though, what the hell am I supposed to do about it?