The truth about Taxes.
Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.
Suppose that every day 10 men go out for dinner. The bill for all 10 comes to $100. If they pay the bill the way we all pay our taxes, it would go like this:
The first 4 men, the poorest, would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh, $7.
They eighth, $12.
The ninth, $18.
The tenth man, the richest, would pay $59.
That's what they decided to do. The 10 men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement - Until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
"Since you are such good customers, I'm going to reduce the cost of your meal by $20", he said.
Now, dinner for ten is only $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.
The first 4 men were unaffected. They would still eat free. But, what about the other six, the paying customers?
How could they divy up the $20 so everyone would get his "fair share"? The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everyones share, the 5th and 6th man would end up being *paid* to eat their meal.
The restaurant owner suggested it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the details.
So, the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, the tenth paid $52 instead of his earlier #59.
Each of the six was better off than before. And, the first 4 continued to eat free.
But, once outside the restaurant the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got $1 out of the $20 ", said the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth and said, "But he got $7"!!!
"Yeah, that's right", said the fifth man. "I only saved $1 too. It's unfair he got seven times more than me. "That's true"!!!, shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $7 back when I only got $2 ???, 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 10th man and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. When it came time to pay the bill they discovered something important, they were $52 short.
And that, boys and girls, is how the 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 at the table anymore.
