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  • Profile photo of RegrowRegrow
    Member
    @regrow
    Join Date: 2004
    Post Count: 77

    Here is a story to lighten the Federal Budget discussion! You may have
    heard calls
    from across Australia: “It’s just a tax cut for the rich!”, and it is
    accepted as fact.

    But what does that really mean?

    The following explanation may help.

    Suppose that every night, 10 men go out for dinner.
    The bill for all 10 comes to $100. They decided to pay their bill the
    way
    we pay our taxes, and it went like this:

    * The first four men (the poorest) paid nothing.

    * The fifth paid $1.

    * The sixth $3.

    * The seventh $7.

    * The eighth $12.

    * The ninth $18.

    * The tenth man (the richest) paid $59.

    All 10 were quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner
    said: “Since you are all such good customers, I’m going to reduce the
    cost
    of your daily meal by $20.” So now dinner for the 10 only cost $80.

    The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. The
    first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But how
    should the other six, the paying customers, divvy up the $20 windfall
    so
    that everyone would get his “fair share”? They realised that $20
    divided by
    six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then
    the
    fifth and sixth men would each end up being paid to eat. The
    restaurateur
    suggested reducing each man’s bill by roughly the same percentage, thus:

    * The fifth man paid nothing (like the first four) instead of $1 (100%
    saving).

    * The sixth paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).

    * The seventh paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).

    * The eighth paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).

    * The ninth paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).

    * The tenth paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).

    Each of the six was better off, and the first four continued to eat for

    free, as now did the fifth – but 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!”

    “That’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar too.
    It’s
    unfair that he got ten times more than me!”

    “That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back
    when I
    got only $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 tenth and beat him up.

    The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for dinner. The nine sat
    down
    and ate without him, but when they came to pay the bill, they
    discovered
    that they didn’t have enough money between all of them to meet even
    half of
    the bill! 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 at the table anymore.

    Regards
    Regrow

    You are a fool for 5 seconds if you ask a question, but a fool for life if you don’t.

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