To put it simply, do you believe in raising taxes to get out of the economic holes that many of our home countries are in? Do you see it as a viable and good method to fix the problems that we have?

Taxes pay for shizzle that people need so long as the taxes aren't so high that there not putting people on the streets then i'm all for raising them as high as possible honestly to many essential services are neglected over ones vanity and luxury.

Also i being japanese don't know (or give a rats ass) about Americas "economic crisis" but if raising taxes will get you out of whatever hole you seem to be in then go for it you'll be better off in the long run anyways.

Raising taxes = less consumer spending = slower economic growth.

It's proven, it's shown, it's tested.

/thread

I'm against tax, while I think council taxes and basic road taxes etc are a necessity, I'm against income tax. I don't like the fact that government can tax people from a direct proportion of their income. I do agree the very rich should be taxed heavier, but I think the poor and middle class should have very little income tax.

It's not fair I work harder than a person just so my money is taken away and given to others in form of benefits because they didn't try hard enough. Of course government should help people, but they should be less careless with our money. I mean a year ago most of my friends started getting EMA, they spend it on alcohol, drugs etc...not to mention they get money from their parents who are "supposedly" poor because they are making under 30£thousand a year (60$thousand), that is per household, including split families.

Then there is these stupid policies that no one supports, but we have to follow like Iraq, Afghanistan, Trident nuclear programme. Not to mention here in the UK we have the tendency to help the big greedy banks with their reckless spending with the expense of piling huge government debt which little business's (the lifeblood of the UK economy) has to burden for the banks faults, while they pay out massive bonus's to their staff, still....

I have no confidence in any of the UK parties because their policy is always favorable of high tax, and wasting tax payers money. Just look here, a perfect example...£239million (450+$m) wasted on helicopters we can not use, that's the tax of my whole area for more than an entire lifetime, wasted.



Rising taxes can lead to worse economic situation, maybe even a collapse of the dollar, that could have bad, very bad global effects, and especially would hurt the Japanese and Chinese who rely on the dollar. If the dollar goes down, China, USA and Japan will face massive consequences, so you should care very much about how the American economy is doing.

I am usually against the raising of taxes. Being a semi-impoverished college student, I honestly live on the bare minimum. (This is hypocritical since I am now collecting unemployment benefits).

But one question: How can we pay off our MASSIVE deficit, and all the billion dollar programs Obama is pushing, without raising taxes?

By cutting spending and stopping these bills from passing, getting rid of the federal reserve, or auditing it will help. Cutting down on oversea wars, cutting down these huge social reforms. America economy is not healthy, but the government is acting and spending like it is. Lower taxes will encourage much more business and will re provide America with much jobs and help little companies.

Ummm i work on a small farm on a remote(ish) island we're not really affected by this economy BS so no i really shouldn't.



Yes because 4 trillion dollars in oil reserves really hurts your economy.

If we're gonna raise taxes, just add a tiny bit to sales taxes. As Winston Churchill said, a nation trying to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to pull himself up by the handle. A general spirit of LET'S START SPENDIN' AGAIN is capable of reviving our economy. Once our ecnomy is back on track, the government can begin collecting revenue. However, I wouldn't see any problems with raising the income tax for the super rich. It's all a matter of the common folk having enough change in their pocket to be mad capitalists again.

There's also plenty of ways the government can cut down on spending.

Well it depends if you are self sufficient, if your farm wishes to make a good profit, if you own the land, if you wish to do something else other than farm then the economic climate may prove quite a problem. At the moment the amount of money being printed is risking the foundations of the dollar, if the dollar tumbles savings, purchasing power, pensions etc will drop. So for example the price of food in your farm (if you export) will drop because of the week dollar. However being a farm owner in a fertile rainy area with lots of rain is never a bad situation to be in.



Where did you this figure from? I looked it up and Iraq has 110millon barrels worth of oil in reserves, oil being 72$ a barrel makes that around 8 billion, a lot less than what you state. Not to mention that USA is not entitled to that oil so it doesn't help the economy at all. From a reliable source, or I may think so, The Washington post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8030702846.html suggesting that the war will cost $3trillion, and that was 3 months ago.

LMAO - please show your proof to that?

It's common sense...people have less money so they spend less.

I got the figure from a System of a Down music video actually which i then went wtf no that can't be right, researched it and noticed that most sources confirmed a similar figure. These are 2003-2005 statistics however so they may be incorrect. As for USA not being entitled to the oil, America is basically entitled to whatever the fudge it wants that just so happens to be massive amounts of oil in Iraq and if you believe that oil has nothing to do with the war in Iraq i recommend you stop listening to FOX or wherever your getting this notion that the war is really about protecting the states from Iraqi terrorists.

Um, if we(as in America and the Americans, and not the corperations) were actually profiting our empire overseas then I doubt there would be the amount of people there are who want to reducing military presence overseas. Try and think of another better way to back your claims other then saying "stop watching FOX" doing so makes you automatically lose the debate. That and citing SOAD as your source.

Some taxes may be necessary but there is one that is not as criminal as the income tax is. The government has no right to your income and was passed into law under the impression that only the wealtheist 1-5% would be taxed, but now everyone including poor people's incomes are taxed.

Maybe the oil is running out?

But really it's common sense that oil atleast plays a major role in Americas overseas missions. Purhaps you really are stopping a terrorist threat but your sure as hell not doing it for free otherwise you would've been out of there once you realised 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq or once you found out there were no WMD's in the country

And i'm looking for a better source atm but i checked that figure a couple years ago and it's hard enough finding a site that doesn't spew a bunch of "BLAH BLAH BLAH CONSPIRACY" Left wing crap or BLAH BLAH BLAH EV1L COMMUN1ST TERR0R1STZ" Right wing crap let alone find a site with reliable monetary figures on the war.

wow buddy now you are really making up stuff and making up assumptions about people, of course its not for terrorist threat i just said it was for corperations and the military-industry complex! dont say i am for the iraq war because i am against our military presences overseas and know that the american empire is bankrupting our country! i am against every war including the iraq war, afghanistan war.

Woops my bad i just woke up and sorta 1/2 skimmed your post

Your free to slap me in the face if you ever see me IRL.

Sorry

Oh your right to an extent I miscalculated, they have 110billion barrels of oil reserved not millions, that is about 900billion$, which is alot yes, but the point is America can not simply demand the oil through occupation without very bad consequences from the global community. Also like I pointed out, the war in Iraq's cost outweighs the oil reserves 3:1.

No, I'm not saying the Iraq war isn't because of oil, oil is still a very important global resource, and it was most likely that USA wanted more control on the production of oil, so oil producing countries could not threaten oil sanctions upon them, which would give them relative control in the global markets. Also we don't get (not to my knowledge) FOX in the UK, most of my reading is from The Times(of london), BBC and online research. And umm, please...please..show me where I mentioned terrorists..? All I mentioned was the wars overseas is costing a huge amount of capita which could be used to dramatically reduce the deficit and debt. My general idea of spending cuts is very similar to Ron Paul's if you want it in rough.

Well, not raising taxes or passing silly stimulus packages seems to have worked in Poland as Poland is one of the few "western" (capitalist, similar to USA in structure) that will not begin 2010 in a recession. Maybe the only one not to have a recession.

HUHHHHHHH

See this is what I thought would happen...I knew some country would be all "rogue" and shizzle and not pass some ridiculous $23958206724088724b stimulus package, and recover faster.

So, to all the doubters...

I agree with Demon... And it's not about how high taxes are, it's how they're spent.

Well, Poland seems to have learned from the many economic problems it had during the 80s and 90s. Now it's time for the "developed" world to learn.

BUT UR A BUNCHA KOMMIES

Seriously, where did the idea for bailouts come from? Socialism...sure, communism =/= socialism, but still. Americans are all nutty about OBAMA R SOSHULIZT LOL, so why were they crazy for a bailout.

Oh...they weren't...

No, the problem here was Congress getting the bailout shoved down their collective throat by Obama. And it passed by one vote. Fail much?

Yep, Poland has done exactly what you should do during such times. Keep taxes low and increase government spending.

/topic

Perhaps the best way to get money is not to increase the income but to decrease the spending on frivolous projects, like designing submarines for use in Iraq.