Awesome reply…..

I know many people forget that income distribution. The beer economics is an illusion. Wealthy have got their wealth because those 1-5 works their assess off for the wealthy. Then middle those poor and middle class bought those products. All work and price money went to rich.

This stupid beer economics doesn’t mention that. …..

One: Everyone is forced to go to the bar. It’s a subtle difference, but makes an impact on the analogy. It corresponds to the idea that if you live here, you pay taxes here.

Two: They do not pinpoint exactly the extent of how rich everyone is. Guy number 10 is as wealthy as the other 9 guys combined, while guys 1-5 make only 10% of the total wealth.

That is, to scale, every day all 10 guys make about $580:

Person Makes
1-5 $74
6-7 $116
8-9 $124
10 $266

Now, let’s re-examine the data with this in mind.

To pay for the bill equally ($10 each) would require:
Person Income Paid
1-5 67%
6-7 17%
8-9 16%
10 3.8%

Note: I know that no one is advocating dollar amount equality, but it is illustrative.

Now, let’s say that everyone is required to pay 17% of their income for the tab:
Person Pays
1-5 $12
6-7 $20
8-9 $22
10 $46

Interesting. Now let’s consider that, since 17% of income from person 1-5 significantly inhibits their ability to even make an income to begin with, persons 1-5 pay nothing. Then, the other 5 people pay 20%
Person Pays
1-5 $0 -12(16% of wealth)
6-7 $23 +3(2.5% of wealth)
8-9 $25 +3(2.4% of wealth)
10 $52 +6(2.25% of wealth)

Interesting. Even with the bottom 5 people paying nothing at all, the wealthiest person still pays LESS than in the current tax system. However, persons 6-9 pay more.

Now, let’s say that the bill is reduced to $80 (maybe the bar owner gave up his 10 year feud with the neighboring bar owner). Then everyone would be required to pay 14%:
Person Pays
1-5 $10
6-7 $16
8-9 $17
10 $37

Or, with person 1-5 paying nothing, 6-10 pay 16%
Person Pays
1-5 $0 -10(13.5% of wealth)
6-7 $18 +2(1.7% of wealth)
8-9 $19 +2(1.6% of wealth)
10 $43 +6(2.25% of wealth)

So, as the data shows, a flat rate is certainly fair and the issue to argue is certainly not that the bottom 5 people pay nothing *When you consider the disproportionate amount of income each person makes*.

Also, the crux of the article involves the middle and lower class complaining about not getting enough benefit out of the tax cut. No one is making this argument. The argument is in cutting the upper incomes taxes exclusively. That is the notion of ‘trickle down’. It would be like giving all 20$ to only the tenth man (a 34% savings!) . It is laughably ridiculous, and that would certainly cause the men to become outraged outside. They would argue “We are forced to come to this bar, and we pay our fair share, but you get to pay less because you make the most!? That is ridiculous!”

The analogy confuses, as everyone on the for-rich-tax-breaks camp does, the difference between paying a fair percentage and the corresponding dollar amount. Of course the top 10% will pay 60% of the taxes when the top 10% makes over 60% of the income!

There are too many people though that think they are educated by facts and are actually falling into the propaganda trap.

This was fun. What do you think?

Who would have guessed that by lowering the bar bill that the tenth guy pays, he actually ends up hiring two of the others to help him carry the beers for the group. You can probably think up some other witty beer-related analogy related to the rich owning businesses, including many of the small businesses that make up the bulk of American jobs, and how we’re really punishing some of the hardest-working members of our society, and thus ourselves, with this asinine tax system.

And finally for those complaining about the poor lower classes, it’s not like welfare just emerged in January 2009, again, out of thin air. Anyone, no matter their income level, should be able to leave a legacy to their children. Instead of using their negative tax payments to get out of debt, saving up for their kids’ college and their own retirement, and leaving an inheritance so their kids have it better off than they did, it seems like the poor are content to stay where they are at financially, wait for a handout from the tenth guy on one side, and spend 100% of their earnings on “essentials” like payday loans, iPhones, HBO, and beer, using the other hand.