I only wish I owned a brewery. The Backyard Brewery is exactly that - the brewery in my backyard. Sadly, out of commission for two years now due to the tots running around. But, I'm about to fire it back up. First up will be my Arrogant Bastard clone once McCain wins. If Obama wins, I guess I'll downgrade to Light Swill.
No, I'm not in that 5% range (yet!), but I'm doing well enough for myself. The upper 5% will not pay the gross taxes Obama is suggesting, and your statement about them "sacrificing" their money for the greater good is one of my pet peeves. Get the lower class off their respective butts, off welfare, and contributing to society. If somebody's working hard and making money, regardless if they're making 50,000 a year or 50 million a year, they are working hard to get it. (I am referring to people who have every ability to work but choose not to because it's easier in their minds to sit home and collect government checks all month - soundbite me wrong and you may be dealing with a JDub attitude [see Post 12451 in the Official Off Topic Thread). The middle class is the largest class in the US, and they will always bear the tax burden, regardless of what any politico deals to the public.
Well this is where some of my more conservative beliefs that I claimed I had earlier come in. I am in total agreement about the whole wellfare/government handouts to people who do nothing but sit on their asses, that I can assure you. But like you said, it is the HUGE middle class that suffers.
You say the middle class will sadly always be screwed, but you don't see a problem with this being that the middle class represents the majority of citizens? The lower class feed off of wellfare that is paid through the taxes of both the rich and middle class. I like Obama's tax plan because it could essentially get rid of the wellfare system being abused by people who don't really need it (and I feel most people don't really need it).
I pay tons of taxes yet cannot afford healthcare myself, yet these people who abuse wellfare get medicade from the taxes I pay. One reason I struggle with money is the high cost of food, yet these people who abuse wellfare get hundreds of dollars worth of food every month from the taxes I pay. These taxes I pay only beneifit them, and if I didn't pay for these things then I would have a little more money to live on. If Obama gives a tax break to 95% of people then it makes a LOT of people less qualified for wellfare, thus reducing the amount of "handouts" by a significant amount.
I like the idea of universal healthcare because I also want to be able to get healthcare from the taxes I contribute to and not let it all go only to those who won't get off their asses. But you know what? In the end even if there are some of these people I despise still getting handouts with a tax break I still think it is worth it due to how many middle class people that it will help.
So as you can see I completely agree that there are a lot of lower class people who are there because they want to be lazy, sit at home, and collect wellfare. Even so, people in the middle class cannot be accused of not making enough money due to lack of effort, we cannot all be lawyers or what have you. Our country has to have truck drivers, garbage collectors, construction workers, retail workers, factory workers, etc....which means somebody has to do these things. At the same time we cannot all be rich either; however, with 20% of people posessing 80% of the wealth, taxing the elite 5% could at least help the people of the middle class live a little better.
