What do you define as rich?

#1
NEO

NEO

Eat at Joe's
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
18,872
Likes
14,172
#1
I know alot of people throw out the magic number of 250k per year or more as being rich. I personally think that is a load of crap. 250K does not make you wealthy. It makes you comfortable. Just wanted to know what you all thought what rate a person making 250k per year should be taxed at and what rate a person making 750K per year should be taxed at.
 
#3
#3
Depends on your point of view....looking down or looking up.

It is said that John Rockefeller upon hearing of J. P.Morgan’s death (1913) and the fact his fortune was then estimated at $80 million, said, “Why, he wasn’t even rich.”
 
#4
#4
250 means you are in the top 2% of the country in terms of salary. It's wealthy.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#6
#6
Ihatethebuckeyes said:
I know alot of people throw out the magic number of 250k per year or more as being rich. I personally think that is a load of crap. 250K does not make you wealthy. It makes you comfortable. Just wanted to know what you all thought what rate a person making 250k per year should be taxed at and what rate a person making 750K per year should be taxed at.
Click to expand...


The same as someone making 25K per year. 10% max with no exemptions.
 
#7
#7
dickens821 said:
250 means you are in the top 2% of the country in terms of salary. It's wealthy.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
Click to expand...

Tax bracket they should be in please?

Why is it wealthy just because it's top 5%?

Cost of living is going up much faster than average wage.
 
#8
#8
T-TownVol said:
[/B]

The same as someone making 25K per year. 10% max with no exemptions.
Click to expand...

I agree.

Also, if the taxes can't support the budget based on this then spending needs to be cut to match the tax revenue.
 
#9
#9
I define "rich" as anyone who isn't poor. If you can honestly state that you are not poor, then you are rich. I cannot attach a monetary baseline to that, so brackets work for me.
 
#10
#10
Ihatethebuckeyes said:
spending needs to be cut to match the tax revenue.
Click to expand...

I like this statement, but I don't think 10% across the board would be enough.

We should do some math on this and figure out what would be an across the board percent. Anyone down for some number crunching?

What do you think would be an acceptable budget, buck? An end goal amount of money to collect, as it were.
 
#11
#11
fl0at said:
I like this statement, but I don't think 10% across the board would be enough.

We should do some math on this and figure out what would be an across the board percent. Anyone down for some number crunching?

What do you think would be an acceptable budget, buck? An end goal amount of money to collect, as it were.
Click to expand...

I believe the budget should consist of federal funding for the military. I would give each soldier a raise. I would place federal funding to maintain roads. I would place enough money to take care of people who lose their jobs for 1 year. I would keep the Pell grants in and funding for colleges. I would make sure that each child who graduated with an A average or higher was given the financial means to attend college. I would throw in about 1% over the top for cats. I would also throw in 3% over the top for science R&D. Whatever this number is (I'm not going to calculate it right now but the figures are out there) I'd throw in an addition 4% over the top for funding of projects that are needed but I didn't name. Then whatever that number is I would cap the flat tax at.

Funding to N Korea gone. Aid packs to Africa gone. Welfare over a 12 month period gone. I mean completely gone. You either get a job or you starve to death. Brutal huh.
 
#12
#12
In 2008 the top-earning 5 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $159,619) earned 34.7 percent of the nation's adjusted gross income and paid approximately 58.7 percent of federal individual income taxes.

Also the top 0.1 percent (the top 10% of the top 1%) filed 140,000 tax returns, reporting nearly 10 percent of all adjusted gross income earned and paying approximately 18.5 percent of the nation's federal individual income taxes. The average income for a tax return for this group was $6.0 million with an average amount of income tax paid was $1.36 million...average effective individual income tax rate of 22.7 percent.

The Tax Foundation - Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data
 
#13
#13
Ihatethebuckeyes said:
Then whatever that number is I would cap the flat tax at.
Click to expand...

All of that wouldn't be terrible, but I don't know if it would be possible. I would be interested to know what that total was, and what that percentage might be. Might be something I attempt later on, depending on the complexity.

Is state funding provided, or is that a separate flat tax?
 
#14
#14
Ihatethebuckeyes said:
I know alot of people throw out the magic number of 250k per year or more as being rich. I personally think that is a load of crap. 250K does not make you wealthy. It makes you comfortable. Just wanted to know what you all thought what rate a person making 250k per year should be taxed at and what rate a person making 750K per year should be taxed at.
Click to expand...

Everyone's going to have their own definition, but being comfortable and rich is really relative to each indivduals expectations..

If your making either 250K, or 750K, and spending most of it on Houses, Car's, Lifestle etc, without saving, you probably feel neither rich or poor, becasue you don't have the discretionary income and savings to feel either comfortable or rich
 
#15
#15
fl0at said:
I like this statement, but I don't think 10% across the board would be enough.

We should do some math on this and figure out what would be an across the board percent. Anyone down for some number crunching?

What do you think would be an acceptable budget, buck? An end goal amount of money to collect, as it were.
Click to expand...

if EVERYONE paid 10% it would be enough
 
#17
#17
fl0at said:
All of that wouldn't be terrible, but I don't know if it would be possible. I would be interested to know what that total was, and what that percentage might be. Might be something I attempt later on, depending on the complexity.

Is state funding provided, or is that a separate flat tax?
Click to expand...

I don't believe in a State tax. I do believe in a consumption tax which can be controlled. No tax on food either. TN does not have a state tax but a higher sales tax than in Ohio. I'm ok with that. If a person decides to be frugal and save their money they'll have more to save. if they want to spend everything they make, fine, they're taxed at a higher rate. This also benefits lower income people that spend most of their money on food. They would basically only have a 10% flat tax.
 
#18
#18
People that assign 250k as rich aren't considering cost of living.

You make 250k in LA, I don't think you're rich at all. Enough to get by and save some. EVERYTHING is expensive out there.

You make 250K in Memphis? You've got it made. But I still wouldn't call that rich.
 
#20
#20
Wouldn't call 250k rich, it's be comfortable for sure. I'd call anyone that has 10 digits in their checking account(including the two to the right of the decimal) rich. So far i'm not close.
 
#21
#21
TheDeeble said:
People that assign 250k as rich aren't considering cost of living.

You make 250k in LA, I don't think you're rich at all. Enough to get by and save some. EVERYTHING is expensive out there.

You make 250K in Memphis? You've got it made. But I still wouldn't call that rich.
Click to expand...

I'd agree.

Here's how I define rich:

If you eat Lamb on a regular basis for dinner and you're not Mediterranean.

My best friend's grandfather was loaded. 9 figure net worth loaded. He created Teflon or some other non stick thing in the 60's and is one of the wealthiest people I have ever met. He owned two acres in WEst Palm Beach on the beach and a house in the Highlands that my friend now owns. I was 13 when I first went up there and they served lamb that she cooked. They were loaded.
 
#22
#22
T-TownVol said:
if EVERYONE paid 10% it would be enough
Click to expand...

Well, we can hammer out a very, very, very rough estimate of the yearly amount we would bring in.

Let us say the population of the US is about 310,000,000. Let us say that a quarter of that population is retired, and a quarter is not working (under 20 years old, or so). [Yes, some people work at 16, etc, this is a very rough estimate].

Let us take the average income to be $42,000 (I think that is closer to the median income, but we'll go with it). [rough estimate]

So, 0.1*42,000 = [4200 * (.5*310,000,000) ] = $651,000,000,000.00

Not even 3/4 of a trillion dollars, or 651 billion.

In 2009, our spending was ~3,500 billion.

I think, based solely on these very rough estimates, that we may be short if we use 10%, unless we cut spending by about 80% across the board.
 
#23
#23
Ihatethebuckeyes said:
I'd agree.

Here's how I define rich:

If you eat Lamb on a regular basis for dinner and you're not Mediterranean.

My best friend's grandfather was loaded. 9 figure net worth loaded. He created Teflon or some other non stick thing in the 60's and is one of the wealthiest people I have ever met. He owned two acres in WEst Palm Beach on the beach and a house in the Highlands that my friend now owns. I was 13 when I first went up there and they served lamb that she cooked. They were loaded.
Click to expand...

Have a buddy that married a Greek. They love goat meat. I had to ask if that was what was being served at any point in the wedding process.

It was culture shock for this ETN farm boy up in Chicago. A Greek Orthodox ceremony was quite interesting to a guy that grew up Baptist and now attends a Christian church.
Ever seen 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'? I lived it. One of the MOST accurate films I have EVER watched.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#24
#24
fl0at said:
Well, we can hammer out a very, very, very rough estimate of the yearly amount we would bring in.

Let us say the population of the US is about 310,000,000. Let us say that a quarter of that population is retired, and a quarter is not working (under 20 years old, or so). [Yes, some people work at 16, etc, this is a very rough estimate].

Let us take the average income to be $42,000 (I think that is closer to the median income, but we'll go with it). [rough estimate]

So, 0.1*42,000 = [4200 * (.5*310,000,000) ] = $651,000,000,000.00

Not even 3/4 of a trillion dollars, or 651 billion.

In 2009, our spending was ~3,500 billion.

I think, based solely on these very rough estimates, that we may be short if we use 10%, unless we cut spending by about 80% across the board.
Click to expand...

You're not factoring in corporate tax.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top