Apple responds to NYT: "We're among top payers of U.S. income tax"

Re:Apple responds to NYT: "We're among top payers of U.S. in... by yummyfajitas on Sunday April 29, 2012 @05:05PM (#3907116)

Of the items you've mentioned, only education forms a significant part of the government budget (15%). Roads are 4% of the government budget, protection (police, fire, etc) is 5%.

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/piechart_2010_US_total

If you want to defend taxation, defend the things it actually pays for: redistribution from the young to the old and the military (redistribution from workers to non-workers is a distant third).

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Re:Apple responds to NYT: "We're among top payers of U.S. in... by toyg on Sunday April 29, 2012 @05:35PM (#3907205)

Welfare and healthcare (which are really interconnected efforts, or should be) are not just "redistribution from the young to the old", and that's 30% of your graph right there. Countries without these sort of provisions tend to be... "unstable" at best.

You can argue the US military gets too much money, sure, but looking at cultural and voting patterns, I really don't think that's why people don't like to pay taxes.

Obviously public money has to be spent in good ways, but let's not misrepresent all government being about "military and pensions".

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Re:Apple responds to NYT: "We're among top payers of U.S. in... by yummyfajitas on Sunday April 29, 2012 @06:05PM (#3907283)

Countries without these sort of provisions tend to be... "unstable" at best.

Could you explain what you are talking about here? Will the geriatric hordes smash their walkers through the glass of Apple's cube stores if they don't receive trillions in tribute?

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Re:Apple responds to NYT: "We're among top payers of U.S. in... by toyg on Sunday April 29, 2012 @06:19PM (#3907305)

The "geriatric hordes" have sons and grandsons. If the State doesn't support Granny, it's Father who will have to, which will leave less money for Junior, who has enough free time to go out and loot if necessary. You see where this goes.

If that family was made of civil servants or (god forbid) military personnel, you'll also have a strong feeling of resentment-fuelled rage as a bonus.

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Re:Apple responds to NYT: "We're among top payers of U.S. in... by ScottBurson on Sunday April 29, 2012 @07:08PM (#3907413)

But that's how it winds up working anyway: the working-age middle class support the elderly. The only difference is that instead of that support being internal to the family, it's pooled, so that those with parents who are especially expensive to support don't have to pay more, or much more, than others.

There's some value in pooling it like that, I suppose, but let's not kid ourselves. Social Security is a transfer payment system, not a retirement savings program, which is what it was sold to people as.

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Re:Apple responds to NYT: "We're among top payers of U.S. in... by toyg on Sunday April 29, 2012 @08:34PM (#3907568)

I don't know the specific "implementation details" of US Social Security; my point was that support for the elderly is necessary in general, otherwise they go back to being a burden for families, lowering their tolerance levels towards accepting the rule of law. If you plan on scaling back a certain program, you better have something else ready to replace it, or you'll feel the pain at the polls or, in the worst case, in the streets.

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Re:Apple responds to NYT: "We're among top payers of U.S. in... by ScottBurson on Monday April 30, 2012 @12:49AM (#3908070)

I agree with that. I'm not suggesting we should just scrap it. The problem I have is with people who argue it shouldn't even be means-tested.

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Re:Apple responds to NYT: "We're among top payers of U.S. in... by rsanchez1 on Sunday May 06, 2012 @11:09PM (#3937402)

Yeah, when Father and Junior are the ones to throw away and forget Granny in the nursing home, they're the first ones that will come to their rescue.

This is why the elderly come out in droves on election day. They can't trust the young'uns.

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