Hard work = $250,000 ?

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2006
Hard work = $250,000 ?
376
Fri, 10-24-2008 - 9:07am

I’ve read repeatedly that the $250,000 is hard earned money that the government has no right to tax. Personally, I don’t believe that hard work consistently results in high salaries and I’m not convinced that people who make more money work harder or deserve more than most people. Most people, I believe, do work hard and most people are rewarded with 25,000 – 45,000 salary. Not all some hard workers make more and some make less. What do you think? Is the Just World view valid?

http://www.princeton.edu/~rbenabou/beliefs7csend.pdf

most people have a strong need to believe that they live in a world that is just, in the sense that people generally get what they deserve, and deserve what they get. When confronted with data that contradicts this view they try hard to ignore, reinterpret, distort, or forget it —for instance by finding imaginary merits to the recipients of fortuitous rewards, or assigning blame to innocent victims.

Because of their imperfect willpower, individuals constantly strive to motivate themselves (or their children) towards effort, educational investment, perseverance in the face of adversity, and away from the slippery slope of idleness, welfare dependency, crime, drugs, etc. This is another recurrent finding from the sociological evidence. In such circumstances, maintaining somewhat rosy beliefs about the fact that everyone will ultimately get their “just deserts” can be very valuable. Furthermore, if enough individuals end up with the view that economic success is highly dependent on effort, they will ultimately represent a pivotal voting block, and set a low tax rate. Conversely, when individuals anticipate that society will carry out little redistribution, the costs of a deficient motivation to effort or savings are much higher than with high taxes and
a generous safety net. Each individual thus has greater incentives to maintain his belief that effort ultimately pays, and consequently more voters end up with such a world view.

For instance, data from the World Values Survey shows that only 29% of Americans believe that the poor are trapped in poverty, and only 30% that luck, rather than effort or education, determines income. The figures for Europeans are nearly double: 60% and 54% respectively. Similarly, Americans are more than twice as likely as Europeans to think that the poor are lazy (60% versus 26%).

Indeed, 59% of Americans agree or strongly agree that “in the long run, hard work usually brings a better life”; this view commands much less support in Europe, ranging from 34% in Sweden to 43% in Germany.

Is the “American dream,” according to our theory, just a self-sustaining collective illusion?

http://www.princeton.edu/~rbenabou/beliefs7csend.pdf

uCruiser.com Ticker

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-09-2008
Thu, 10-30-2008 - 7:22pm
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-26-2003
Thu, 10-30-2008 - 7:27pm

just speculating since i'm not in that position -

limited funds and bad geography. if i live in a depressed area with no jobs above minimum wage, no jobs with advancement potential and i don't have the money or the time to travel where there are better jobs - especially if my time is limited by child care needs.

Bea




Edited 10/30/2008 7:29 pm ET by queenbea4
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2008
Thu, 10-30-2008 - 7:57pm

Reported. There is no need for personal attacks...


<Capital gains hits every single American. Nor just those with a Trust fund.>


BTW - Fewer than one in seven individual income taxpayers reported taxable capital gains in 2006.


http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=1001201



I've sold several homes and never paid a dime in capital gains.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-14-2008
Thu, 10-30-2008 - 8:09pm
Why brag about tattling? Surely you can do so without saying.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2008
Thu, 10-30-2008 - 8:13pm

So others won't flood the cms with the same report?


iVillage Member
Registered: 05-14-2008
Thu, 10-30-2008 - 8:24pm
LOL! How caring of you! Better you than me!
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2006
Thu, 10-30-2008 - 9:18pm
I don't need a lesson in statistics, thank you anyway. Your pseudo-certainty is a little to off putting for me to reply further.

uCruiser.com Ticker
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2006
Thu, 10-30-2008 - 9:28pm

>>That penalizes success, however it's earned. <<

As I've said, I disagree.

uCruiser.com Ticker
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2006
Thu, 10-30-2008 - 9:31pm

>>An important study was done by Douglas Detterman and Mark Daniel (1989) leading to their claim that "in economic terms it appears that the IQ score measures something with decreasing marginal value. It is important to have enough of it, but having lots and lots does not buy you that much.<<

This bit I can agree with. Having enough intelligence (George W.) matters, but having a lot of it, is economically irrelevant.

uCruiser.com Ticker
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2006
Thu, 10-30-2008 - 10:30pm

<>

Actually I didn't say (or imply anything of the sort). I encourage you to go back and re-read my post, and also check out the other ones I've written about taxes: that I think I should pay taxes, that I like paying taxes, that I think taxes build the infrastructure for a civilized society.

<>

Why on earth for? To help import goods made by people who earn $5 a day, to be sold in a country where $5 per hour is not a living wage? I don't think so! I don't need to be part of the pyramid scheme that is impoverishing my fellow Americans. Instead, when possible I support our domestic economy: I buy local foods, patronize local businesses and local craftsmen, and buy goods manufactured in countfies that value a person's time at roughly the same rates as the U.S. (This last bit is becoming ever more difficult. Even a couple of years ago I could still buy tools made in the U.S.A. or Italy pretty easily; often I can't now. And the Chinese knock-offs are often garbage: for one example, I replaced my American made Magic Chef microwave oven after almost twenty years because it finally began to rust on the inside, and the swanky stainless steel Chinese Magic Chef model that I replaced it with bursts into flame on the convection setting, overheats and shuts off after ten minutes or so, and arcs if there's any grease on the element. A Chinese made Electrolux came DOA; its European predecessor is still going strong after a decade. My husband gave a Chinese "Pasta Queen" pasta maker to a friend after not being able to find one like his Italian "Atlas": the Chinese model seized up after a couple of months, as did TWO warranty replacements.) I don't have to make obscene amounts of money to know that I'm a productive citizen, unlike the CEO's that earn 400 times the salary of the average workers in their companies. It doesn't take the brains of a rocket scientist to figure out that if 35% of Americans are too poor to have tax liability, there's something terribly awry with our economy. (This is a fairly recent development in the U.S. The disparity between worker and management salaries started to be really obvious in the 1980's, and has become much more larger since then.)




Edited 11/8/2008 7:59 pm ET by muddymessalonskee

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