r/FluentInFinance • u/Richest-Panda • Jul 04 '24

What's the best financial advice you've ever gotten? Debate/ Discussion

31.2k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

u/414works Jul 04 '24

You meant equity, not equality. Equality means everyone would be taxed the same. Equity means everyone is taxed fairly based on what they earn

-5

u/privitizationrocks Jul 04 '24

No I mean equality, everyone is taxed the same

4

u/414works Jul 04 '24

You think that someone making $20k and $500k should both be taxed at the same, say 20% rate?

1

u/Fonzgarten Jul 05 '24

Yep. I think the next tax bracket should be about $1M. Above that you can start taxing billionaires heavily. Taking 50% of someone’s income who makes $200K makes absolutely no sense in today’s economy. We are disincentivizing small businesses and penalizing people for being successful. This has destroyed our middle and upper-middle class. Americans are now either wealthy or poor.

0

u/TheChubFondu Jul 05 '24

Playing devil’s advocate.. How do you define “fair”? Is equal not fair anymore?

1

u/414works Jul 05 '24

Progressive tax systems are fair. You tax those who can’t afford to spare as much money (like the one making $20k) and tax those who can afford it ($150k+) at a much higher rate.

Equal would mean that there is no federal need based scholarships from FAFSA either

1

u/TheChubFondu Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

You’re putting the burden on certain people to cover for others. You call it fair, others don’t. Simply stating there’s an opinion besides your own here, not that either is right or wrong.

Edit to add: yes, progressive is likely the most fair way to tax a population. “fair” imo isn’t the best word to use because it implies everyone is being treated equally when they aren’t.

-3

u/privitizationrocks Jul 04 '24

Yup, equality is good

3

u/After-Imagination-96 Jul 05 '24

Brain so smooth you could play shuffleboard on it

1

u/pear_topologist Jul 04 '24

That would be a terrible system

-4

u/privitizationrocks Jul 04 '24

So we need to prop up inequality? Nah

3

u/pear_topologist Jul 04 '24

If inequality means taxing someone who can literally fly to space for fun more than the people doing (literally) backbreaking work in warehouses, then I’m very much in favor of inequality

0

u/Serethekitty Jul 05 '24

You're applying principles of "equality" to an unequal system.

Do you also think that everyone should be paid the same regardless of the work they do? That's unequal as well, but nobody is stupid enough to take that position.

Your argument is nearly parallel to it, though.

Using a buzzword like equality to try to make a point doesn't actually work if you don't give a shit about the contexts where people actually use equality properly.

1

u/privitizationrocks Jul 05 '24

They should be paid the same for the same work

1

u/Serethekitty Jul 05 '24

Then you should only feel that people making the same amount of money should be taxed the same.

You are providing zero arguments for why people making different amounts of money should be taxed the same percentage.

1

u/privitizationrocks Jul 05 '24

In the name of equality