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Welcome to the NEW Atkinson Reporter! Under new management, with new resolve.

The purpose of this Blog is to pick up where the Atkinson Reporter has left off. "The King is dead, Long live the King!" This Blog is a forum for the discussion of predominantly Atkinson; Officials, People, Ideas, and Events. You may give opinion, fact, or evaluation, but ad hominem personal attacks will not be tolerated, or published. The conversation begun on the Atkinson Reporter MUST be continued!

This Blog will not fall to outside hacks from anyone, especially insecure public officials afraid of their constituents criticism.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Our Tax system explained in laymans terms.

From the Plaistow Town Crier;

by Linda W.
Member since: October 26, 2006

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer
and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

I am not sure who wrote this but hopefully it might make a few people think.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something
like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the
arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.'Since you are
all such good customers, he said,'I'm going to reduce the cost of your
daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the
first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But
what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they
divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But, if they subtracted
that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would
each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's
bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the
amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before And the first four continued
to drink for free. But, once outside the restaurant, the men began to
compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20', declared the sixth man. He pointed
to the tenth man,'but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right', exclaimed the fifth man.'I only saved a dollar,
too. It's unfair that he got
ten times more than I!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man.'Why should he get $10 back
when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison.'We didn't get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat
down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill,
they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money
between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls , journalists and college professors, is how
our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most
benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being
wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nonsense! We just need to pay more taxes for the planned expansion of the Atkinson Town Hall so they have an enhanced space for more offices to tax us with greater ease. Also the new communications tower (more pork). I don't even want to even think about the $$$$$$$ library I will never use as they have a poor inventory of books. Also more taxes for a police department run as a taxi service. How can I get fuel assistance or a welfare check from the police department? Can I get food stamps? I need a free ride.

Anonymous said...

Article Submission -

Webmaster says -

Documentation obtained during the discovery phase of the HAWC-PUC hear is now available at
www.just-goaway.com .

There were a number of documents listing potential abutters to the pipeline. I've not included those for privacy purposes.

I'm not going to comment or editorialize on the documents. I will leave it to you to form your own opinions.

A number of people have asked the PUC to hold a public hearing before they make their decision. It is not required but it has been pointed out that the public has had very little input into this whole process. If you feel the same, use the mailing list on the web site and let them know.

Anonymous said...

How about we do this. We have our government spending LESS so we can all get tax cuts and our govt doesn't go into record deficits? Maybe that would be a novel approach rather than you keep selling the idea that we should stop taxing rich people?

Anonymous said...

How about this. We take all perks away from Gov. Officials so they can't retire at our expense. Take the perks away first, then their power. Wanna bet they won't like living on the WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS.........where they belong?

Anonymous said...

Wow. That was a lot of typing make a very strange argument.

You mean the rich should pay less, and their tax breaks should be paid by the working poor and the middle-class?

You mean, a person should get a tax break so that they can buy a 35 foot boat, instead of a 32 foot boat...

...and it should be paid for by someone that would be able to afford to send their kid to college, or afford a medical procedure, if they didn't have to pay for tax breaks for the rich?

I'll tell you what; there are a lot of working-class people with Dads who fought in WWII. They fought to keep this country free, and when they returned they paid taxes and funded the infrastructure that allows all these white-collar types who make a $25 million bonus after they run a corporation into the ground and ruin the pension of a few hundred thousand middle class folk.

I think it's time white collar people pay a little more in taxes so that the working class can have decent healthcare, decent schools, and enough police in their neighborhoods. Stop drinking the Republican Kool-Aid, you look a bit foolish making arguments for the rich, and for oil companies making record profits but somehow get BILLION dollar tax breaks, all funded by ordinary working Americans. Trust me, the fat-cats are laughing all the way to their hundred million dollar bank accounts regarding chumps that make their arguments for them.

Just say no to the Kool-Aid please...

Anonymous said...

And what does this all have to do with Atkinson?

Why are posts continuously put on here that agravate partisan divisions of this country, and distract us all from the work that needs to be done in town.

If someone is willing to put up a blog that only deals with Atkinson issues, please post a message here, I'm ready for it...

Anonymous said...

When there is no news or nothing happening in Atkinson, Something still needs to be posted, maybe it will be of interest to some Atkinnsonians

Anonymous said...

Anon November 14, 2008 6:30 AM said; "When there is no news or nothing happening in Atkinson, Something still needs to be posted, maybe it will be of interest to some Atkinnsonians"

I agree. However, we have the Atikinson Presidential blog for national political discussions. I guess the blog owner just doesn't care about this other blog he started.

And for what it's worth, this article is one of the dumbest explanations of our tax system I've ever read. It's an insult to our intelligence to post something like that.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. This post should be removed. It only furthers the divide and promotes class warfare.

Anonymous said...

what is with this poster that keeps making kool aid comments..he/she sounds absolutely ridiculous

Anonymous said...

No, I think the most ridiculous thing on this board is thatbthe webmaster keeps putting up divisive material; I'm getting to the point where I don't even want to waste my time here. Too bad this blogger can't put the needs of the community above their own petty political needs. Sad...

Anonymous said...

No, I think the most ridiculous thing on this board is thatbthe webmaster keeps putting up divisive material; I'm getting to the point where I don't even want to waste my time here. Too bad this blogger can't put the needs of the community above their own petty political needs. Sad...

Curt Springer said...

Just a suggestion from nearby to the proprietor of this blog or to anybody else contemplating a web site devoted to Atkinson. Some sites, like this one, are in the "blog" format, featuring articles by one or a few people, and comments by others. The latest blog is always the lead article.

Others, like SpeakoutDanville, and Peter Bealo's Timberlane parents site, are in the "bulletin board" format, where articles are segregated by category, and the articles in each category are listed in the order of last posting. You can choose to participate only in the categories that interest you, and ignore others. There is also a BBS site in Newton.

Based on my own experience as one of those administering SoD, and having participated in forums of both the "blog" and "bbs" formats, I think that the "bbs" format is a better fit for a community-oriented web site where all are invited to participate in as equal a basis as possible. I think the "blog" format is best for more personal sites that are designed to highlight the opinions of a single person or of a small group of like-minded persons.

As for this article, it is just campaign nonsense, and the campaign is over.

Anonymous said...

All that's really needed is for the webmaster here to grow up and recognize that they have a civic responsibility to stop featuring divisive material and that the election is over.