A Tax Cut Parable – Putting the Bush Tax Cuts in Perspective

If you felt the Bush Tax Cuts were unfair, to put this in perspective, I am adding a story that will make this clear for everyone to understand. By the way, the ratios are accurate with 10% of the Taxpayers paying 60% of the Taxes Collected; 30% of the Taxpayers paying 37% of the Taxes Collected; and 10% of the Taxpayers paying 4% of the Taxes Collected.

This equates to 50% of the Taxpayers paying 100% of the Taxes Collected and the remaining 50% paying No Income Tax. Here the story goes…….

Every night, 10 men would meet at a restaurant for dinner. At the end of the meal, the bill would arrive. They owed $100 for the food they shared.

Every night, they lined up in the same order at the cash register. This is how the bill was paid:

1. The first 4 Men paid Nothing at all ($0).
2. The 5th Man, complaining about the unfairness of the situation, paid $1.
3. The 6th Man, feeling very generous, paid $3.
4. The 7th Man paid $7.
5. The 8th Man paid $12.
6. The 9th Man paid $18.
7. The 10th main was required to pay the remainder of the balance of $59.

The 10th main realized he was forced to pay for not only his own meal but the unpaid balance left by the first 5 Men.

The 10 men were quite settled into their routine when the restaurant threw them into chaos by announcing that it was cutting its prices. Now dinner for the 10 men would only cost $80. This clearly would not affect the first 4 men because they ate for Free. The 5th and 6th men both claimed their portion of the $20 savings immediately.

The 5th man decided to drop his usual $1 contribution, the 6th pitched in $2. The 7th man deducted $2 from his usual contribution and paid $5. The 8th man paid $9. The 9th Man paid $12, leaving the 10th man will a bill of $52.

Outside of the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings and angry outbursts begin to erupt. The 6th man yelled, “I only received $1 out of the $20, and he got $7″, pointing at the 10th man. The 5th man joined in the argument. ‘Yes, I only received $1. It is unfair that the 10th man received seven times more than what I received”. The 7th man complained, “Why should the 10th man receive a discount of $7 when I only received a discount of $2?”

The nine men formed an outraged mob and surrounded the 10th man. The first 4 men followed the lead of the others, “We did not receive any of the $20, where is our share?” The 9 angry men carried the 10th man to the top of a hill in the town and killed him.

The next night, they all met at their restaurant for their usual meal for dinner. However, then the bill arrived, there was no one to pay it.