what class do you think you are?

[Dinny Breen]

Elite 

But you would swop it for an all Ireland, possibly

In a heart beat

[Tony Baloney]

You Elite boys just remember who is first under the guillotine when the people rise up!

[Shamrock Shore]

Tony

The New World Order will still need Accountants......

[Oraisteach]

Elite seems to be a euphemism for near 60

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

I'm Irish, class system is not part of my upbringing, bit of a Brit thing.

So what system do the Germans use?

I don't know, ask your Royal family.

[EC Unique]

I'm Irish, class system is not part of my upbringing, bit of a Brit thing.

So what system do the Germans use?

I don't know, ask your Royal family.

I suppose the Germans would consider anyone from ROI as working class or benefit class.

[Jonah]

I'm Irish, class system is not part of my upbringing, bit of a Brit thing.

So what system do the Germans use?

I don't know, ask your Royal family.

I suppose the Germans would consider anyone from ROI as working class or benefit class.

Have you a clue about anything?
I thought it was just soccer you knew nothing about.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

I'm Irish, class system is not part of my upbringing, bit of a Brit thing.

So what system do the Germans use?

I don't know, ask your Royal family.

I suppose the Germans would consider anyone from ROI as working class or benefit class.

Have you a clue about anything?
I thought it was just soccer you knew nothing about.

Norn Iron leeches of the British state.

The Republic of Ireland borrows money when in financial difficulty from allies at an interest rate and pays it back (see the difference).

6 counties are UK social welfare junkies. NO PRIDE and ruled by foreigners.

26 counties are solving our issues by borrowing and paying back our LOANS. PRIDE and ruled by the Irish people.

[muppet]

To all you Elite boys, cheers!

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100...
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this...

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1.
The sixth would pay £3.
The seventh would pay £7..
The eighth would pay £12.
The ninth would pay £18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.

So, that's what they decided to do..

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by £20″. Drinks for the ten men would now cost just £80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.

So the first four men were unaffected.

They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men?
The paying customers?

How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?

They realised that £20 divided by six is £3.33. But if they
subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).

The sixth now paid £2 instead of £3 (33% saving).

The seventh now paid £5 instead of £7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid £9 instead of £12 (25% saving).

The ninth now paid £14 instead of £18 (22% saving).

The tenth now paid £49 instead of £59 (16% saving).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a pound out of the £20 saving," declared the sixth man.

He pointed to the tenth man,"but he got £10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a pound too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"

"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get £10 back, when I got only £2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works.

The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction.

Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.

In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.



David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.

I know it is using artistic licence but the point is valid.

[Tony Baloney]

The Elite on here are accountants. What taxes? 

[armaghniac]

Savings seems important here as much as income.

established middle class haven't saved a years income, technical middle class have. This does indeed favour people in a certain age group, around the time the mortgage is paid off and you have a decade to save before retiring.

[muppet]

The fallacy in that piece is that it only covers income tax, which in the UK IIRC makes up less than a third of government revenue. The piece gives the assumption that the first four aren't paying any tax, but there's still the likes of VAT, National Insurance (rough equivalent to PRSI for you southerners) excise duty, rates/council tax, corporation tax etc. VAT and excise duty aren't determined by income and are usually based on a flat rate, NI has a maximum payable rate and rates are dependent on the capital value of your property e.g. you could have little income but capital rich or vice versa. The piece when it relates to income tax only above is very valid, but progressive taxation works both ways in that (a) those at the higher end are expected to be able to contribute a higher proportion as the amount earned on income with less effect on their lifestyles and (b) if those on lower income brackets were to pay a flat tax level the same way & percentage as those at the top, you leave them with less disposable income to spend on which can hurt local economies. It's a thorny issue, and one that doesn't really have a completely right answer looking at empirical evidence against the predictions that such changes in taxation were predicted to make. No system will ever be perfect.

Couple of points in reply. The take from VAT, PRSI, Universal Social Charge etc is still likely to be higher from the higher earner.

The point I took was not that the highest earner complained. He didn't. It was those who benefited disproportionately.