Taxing the rich - what is the cutoff?

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Originally Posted by onlydarksets

Feel free to substitute "wealthy" for "rich", but that's a quote from the article.


Well said. You've hit on the problem as I see it - people equate $250k/year with being "rich" or "wealthy". That just isn't the case.


I agree. However, it's naive to think that $250k in an area like DC, San Diego, San Francisco, etc. buys you complete economic freedom. I think that is no-question possible at $500k, but I don't exactly have experiential data to prove that.


Any cutoff is arbitrary. Why not $225k? Or $300k? Maybe $250k is ridiculous, and it should be $175k? I'm sure they didn't pick that number out of a hat, but I'm equally sure there is no basis to establish $250k as the optimal cutoff.

Yes you are correct the 250,000 number picked was for a good reason. The lower the income Obama wants to increase tax on the great % of Americans it affects and the more people it affects the more people less likely to vote for him. If I'm correct the % of people in the US making over 250 is 2% drop that to $150,000 and the percentage of Americans affected jumps much higher.