Was bored at work and skimming facebook when I saw this comment pop up.
"Don't get me wrong, there are A LOT of things I like about Bernie Sanders...that being said his proposed fiscal policy is arguably the dumbest political idea I've heard in my short life. Maybe I misunderstand it, but it sounds like it breaks down like this: tax the 'evil rich 1%ers' 90%. Now when most people hear that they probably think, "Great! Let's stick it to the dastardly Koch brothers." The problem is, to be considered a '1%er,' one has to make around $350k a year. Under Sanders tax policy, these people (who typically are executives at large companies, which comes with a shitton of stress and a heavy workload) will make $35K a year. With minimum wages getting bumped up to $15 for fast food workers in Washington and New York, that makes their salary around $30K a year. So, what's the point of trying to build your own company if you can make just as much being a lazy fast food worker? Idk, but to me that sounds like a really really good way to disincentivize people and pretty much destroy the idea of an American Dream (where, if you work 10x as hard as someone, you should get paid 10x more - I know it doesn't always work in practice, but at least it's a possibility).
Pretty downright idiotic if you ask me/have half a brain. All that being said, he's creating a really awesome paradigm shift in politics nationwide and I'm happy he's in the running...he just should really reconsider his fiscal stance."
One of his friends pointed out that he should refrain from calling someone idiotic based on the commenter's fundamental misunderstanding of the tax system, but he didn't describe what that misunderstanding is.
In a nutshell, this seems to be the biggest problem with discussing tax policies in the US. I never learned about this in school and it was only fully explained in college because a policy professor was annoyed that no one had a solid grasp on the basics of tax policy. If the public doesn't grasp how tax brackets work and doesn't understand that a top rate of 90% doesn't mean ceding 90% of your total income, then how can we have an informed discussion about fair and effective tax plans?