1. distrustful of human nature: doubting or contemptuous of human nature or of the motives, goodness, or sincerity of others Many people have developed a cynical distrust of politicians.

exactly my point Dude, I do not trust politicians. I do not trust Gore. I do question the motives of these candidates. I do not trust politicians, especially after Billy. Do you trust them? The way you speak it seems like you do. Well I don't, and I don't know anyone who does.

by the way I am voting Bush.
and Dude, thanks for reiterating my point.

As I begin to ramble, I'll come back to my original point: You can't look upon all politicians and politics with disdain. Otherwise, you'll burn out on the frustration and not give a damn. And guess when they're the most powerful...when you don't care.

Vote Bush.

There is no justice in asking a percentage of society to suffer a greater tax burden than another group.

If my income is 500K/yr, why should I pay a higher PERCENTAGE than someone whose income is 50K? Why punish me for being successful??

The "rich" are the ones that finance just about all of the governemnt programs - with their tax dollars - so why not give them a break? They are getting fucked.

The only just tax is a flat tax. Period.

otherwise it's flat tax only.

Vote Bush.

Calculate your annual income: Multiply by .10 (10%). This is your tax. No loopholes. No deductions. No exceptions, except those who make under 30K with 2 kids, or 30K + $7,500 per kid.

Your tax form could be one sheet of paper.

Ten percent. The idiotic programs would have to go away. The government would learn how to do more with less. The hands that have been continually reaching out, would be chopped off.

Ten percent.

and does anyone think it is a bit crazy that 1 person can be worth as much money as 1,500,000 ordinary citizens? (assumptions are 75,000,000,000 to 500,000)

yea...just think. bill gates + larry ellison + paul allen and a handful of other notable billionaires are worth more than the entire low and middle class COMBINED. is that really just?????

I just feel that they (we) work hard for their (our) money and and we deserve a little more of a break.

Gary Player, golfer

What I think is unjust is the fact that alot of the social spending is Bull shit....Your not going to convince me that someone who is on welfare who is physcially and mentally able to work deserves to stay on wellfare cause "Oh I can't get no education to get a better paying job..." Thats crap reguardless of how poor someone is they can get it done if they WANT TO. As an example of wasted public money I have worked a couple of times in a highway crew here in Texas and it was a HUGE waste of public money...Federal Tax dollars were paying my $10hr check, and it took us damn long to get the simplest construction done because the engineers and their bosses where to busy going out to lunch or buying equipment that wasn't neccessary...there is a need for change in this country and we are going to change it or it's going to change us...

My salary is at 87K per year, but my tax amounts are nowhere near the proportions of my girlfriends who owns silk, furniture and import companies. She was a multi millionaire by age 32 and never saw hardly any of her money. It wasn't until she closed her shops and set up "hidden, relocated, diverted ownership, etc.. whatever you want to call it" to foreign soil that she started rolling the $$$ that was left over from the tax cuts. When you get to that large scale $$$ making, you become an expert at tax write offs and dodging. She has a penthouse in every city that one of her showrooms are located in for tax deferment purposes. She can legally claim that she is unable to stay in a hotel for her business. Everything you buy from her is shipped from overseas for the added tax break. You may think that paying import taxes raise the level, but not so. She will take material out of her store in NYC and ship it to Paris and then have it shipped back to NYC where the customer picks up the shipping and handling fees, but she still gets the write off.

You would be surprised at just how crafty a smart accountant can help you save. Being nice with Uncle Sam gets you nowhere.

I want to try to give each of your points the analysis it deserves.

Bill Gates/Paul Allen (Microsoft) and Larry Ellison (Oracle). Calling them "lucky" is misguided. These men all are successful because they are visionaries. None of them are college grads. While their peers were drinking beers and partying, or getting wrapped up in getting the best grades, they saw something that could change the world, and then they made it reality. Now they are reaping the rewards for their vision. Hardly luck. A very poor example there.

However, there are some who are just lucky. Some people are born into considerable wealth. Somewhere out there, there are Vanderbilt and Rockefeller descendants who never did a damn thing for their money, but those are aberrations and not really important to the discussion.

These "lucky" people have their money so secured in holdings that it will be in the family forever. No tax plan will change that. If the taxes become much higher, then tax avoidance becomes the principal objective of the wealthy. They will then start to invest in other countries, removing their money from our system entirely. This is really bad.

Graduated income tax hurts people like me. I come from a very average family, and paid my own way through school. Through considerable effort and sacrifice, I was able to get a job where I make a nice income, with considerable growth potential in this field. If I plan wisely, I may be able to open a few of my own businesses by the time I am 30. (25 now). With some careful planning, I may be able to grow these businesses into considerable wealth.

But along they way, our government wants to make this difficult. Paying over one third of my income is tyrannical. I work into May of each year for others.

And I am not alone. I am part of a growing class of people that is acquiring money and frustration at the same time.

Matt

PEACE

You can't have it both ways. Gates did everything he could to destroy his competition, but that's why they call it competition.

You can't have competition and at the same let everyone compete. In competiton there is always a winner and a loser. You can't legislate against this, and then expect competition to be as fierce.

They won't run out of money with 10%. They'll have to learn to use it more responsibly.

Did you know the Constitution only spoecifies three federal crimes: piracy, counterfeiting, and treason. SAy goodbye to the FBI, the DEA (drugs would be a state-to-state issue), the ATF, and more - I don't want to get into my political philosophy too much here, but as you can see, much of our modern day bloated mess of a federal government would be eliminated.

If you;re willing to pay 1/5 of your money to the fed, do it. But I'll be damned if I call that just.