BOO!!! - And Fucking BRAVO !!! - A Shit Of A WaPo Editorial, And One HELL Of A Response...

[JDPriestly]

85. That's because most people would not be able to eat or sleep under a roof at night if they

paid additional taxes.

The disparity in incomes between rich and poor mean that the poor cannot survive and pay taxes.

The average Social Security benefit for a retiree is $1,269. There is very little difference between the mean and the average benefits because the top benefit is somewhere around $3,300.

You can Google the top benefit.

Here is the link for the average benefit.

http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/basicfact.htm

Don't be too embarrassed about your ignorance on this issue. Most Americans do not realize that the average Social Security benefit barely keeps a person above the poverty level.

The poverty level for a household with one person was $11,490 in 2013.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/13poverty.cfm

The average Social Security benefit is $15,228 per year. If you work 40 hours every week at the federal minimum wage of $7.50. You make $16,500 per year.

Increase the minimum wage and not only do incomes rise but so do tax revenues at the state and federal levels.

California's new $10 minimum wage per hour will mean that a person earning a minimum wage and working 40 hours per week will earn about $22,000 per year.

Low income workers put everything back into the economy. The rich hoard, save, "invest" overseas, buy luxury items, travel outside the US, live outside the US, and spend a much smaller percentage here in the US than do low-income people.

Every penny given to a person on Social Security or a person earning minimum wage goes back into our economy to increase our GDP.

Lowering taxes on rich Americans may help the Chinese economy and other foreign economies but nowadays, on the average, I don't think you would find that lowering taxes on rich Americans helps the American economy nearly as much as raising the incomes of low income people including people on Social Security does.

The Republican mantra about the "job creators" is not based on reason. The math shows you improve your economy when you have a BETTER BALANCE between the incomes of those who earn less and spend a larger percentage of what they earn and those who earn a lot and "invest" or save or spend outside the US most of their money.

Social engineering? Anything you do about incomes and taxes and investments, etc. will change the distribution of wealth to favor the rich or the poor. Doing nothing about it will also change3 the distribution of wealth. You end up with a feudal state if you just let people have whatever they can take, whatever they can grab, whatever they can outsmart others for. There is no way to avoid it.

Actions cause effects. That is true of economics just as it is of engineering or physics or even music. (Rub a string the right way and you get something beautiful. Press the string too hard with your bow and you get the sound of a dying cat.) The libertarian dream is so much hooey.

So we should tax the rich more and raise the minimum wage. We should increase not decrease Social Security benefits.

The GDP measures the flow of money from buyer to seller, from producer to buyer. We need to encourage the flow of money within the US to truly improve our GDP and end our deficits.

Every time you have an exchange of money for goods or services you improve the economy. The rich can only buy so much. The poor and middle classes keep the GDP going.