It does give you some reasons to think though, doesn't it? From something seemingly modest, the "need" for more tax dollars has just grown exponentially.
Even more perspective can be gotten from looking back to the start of the income tax age, 1913. A very modest tax rate--7% for the top tax bracket, and seven tax brackets in all. Then in the first world war the top tax rate went up, up and up, reaching 63% even before Roosevelt took office.
It is idle to yearn for the days before income tax took the chunk out of paychecks that it now does. Are we better off than we were a hundred years ago? There's a question a presidential candidate could well ask, don't know if I'd know the answer to it.
Re: Mitt's rate
Broadway
1/22/2012 3:44:56 PM
It is a dated mode of thinking. But listen to how republican candidates talk to voters and it becomes very obvious that the average american voter --- anybody living between the two coasts --- still lives in the 1980s, a fairy tale place where they can ignore all the social and cultural developments of the last 20 years.
Re: Mitt's rate
Dex
1/22/2012 10:47:02 AM
My thoughts exactly. Some of the most moral and ethical people I know are spiritual, but not overtly religious.
I find it so ... I don't know, dated perhaps ... that people care about whether someone goes to a place of worship or not, or worry about which denomination or religion a person believes in.
Sure, ethics and morality are important. But I measure those on actions and behavior, not on membership (or not) in a religious group.
Re: Mitt's rate
Broadway
1/21/2012 2:55:00 PM
The issue isn't that people care where Mitt spends his money. It's the fact that evangelicals -- and probably most Christians and Americans -- do not consider Mormons to be Christians. And to be an un-Christian in America, to put it bluntly, really hurts your chances of getting elected president. Not as much as calling yourself an atheist or a Scientologist. But close!
Re: Mitt's rate
tokyogai
1/20/2012 9:33:21 AM
Noreen- I think you have hit the nail on the head. I am sure the number given the the Mormon church is huge and will upset many people. It is his money and he can spend it as he chooses, but the public will not see it this way.
I don't know because Opus Dei -- Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code aside -- merits attention. It is a religious group with an avowed global political agenda. For or against it, people should at least understand it.
Re: Mitt's rate
cat tail
1/20/2012 8:50:41 AM
Re: Mitt's rate
Dex
1/20/2012 8:45:24 AM
My experience with evangelicals is that they are very supportive of their own churches, but somewhat skeptical of anyone else's, whether that means a Mormon temple, a Jewish synagogue, or any other variation on the theme. So giving handily to the Mormon church could be an issue, even among people who understand tithing.
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