That's a stupid defeatist argument Chaz.

What about the 3.8% NIIT?

Get ready for the net investment income tax

At its most simplistic, it is a tax on investment income. Investment income includes interest, dividends, capital gains and rents. But many taxpayers have been surprised to learn that this tax would also apply to any taxable gain on the sale of their home (after exclusions). As first presented, this new tax seemed simple. But the NII is also a net investment tax. Taxpayers can offset certain expenses against income of this type.

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/…

How's Stockholm this time of year, Charles?

WHAT DO WE WANT!? ... TO SAVE OUR BUS ROUTES!!!

WHO SHOULD PAY FOR IT!? ... SOMEBODY ELSE!!!

If 50 Seattle bus routes are eliminated, vs 15 non-Seattle routes. Whats the incentive for people who don't live or work in Seattle to vote for this again? Threatening gridlock traffic seems empty given its mostly Seattle thats going to suffer.

PS
Whats plan b?

@1, I can think of no more defeatist argument than, "Go head, let's hold our breath and watch society crumble around us until we can find somebody else to tax."

As much as I like Bill de Blasio, this is what always struck me as off-kilter about his whole "tax the rich to fund universal pre-K" campaign plank. If we think a public good is worthwhile, we ought to be willing to pay for it, even if we can't find the fairest taxing mechanism possible.

A couple days ago, I was having a very similar thought to what Charles expresses here. If the super-rich have effectively broken their bonds with the local community--thanks to the mobility of their money--then that doesn't mean there ceases to be a community. Just because some folks have seen fit to absolve their bonds of community doesn't mean the rest of us have to. Having a functioning transportation system keeps our region economically competitive, even though "the powers that be" may not need to be so invested in the economic competitiveness of our region or any other.

Driver should have kicked the biddy off and made her walk the rest of the way. Enjoy the fruits of your vote!

Well, ok, if we accept the logic that the 'rich have won', then here's a three-prong strategy:

1. Tax ourselves so the bus routes remain viable.
2. Keep up the efforts to tax the rich.
3. Make the rich suffer in other ways.

@5 - You're right. The rich have abdicated their responsibilities and connections to their local communities, but that happened a fairly long time ago. They prefer to hang out with their own friends, other rich people who think like they do - without caring for anyone else. This is the problem: Rich only hang around other rich people.. that's their "community", their "culture". And it's a culture that will never shame them into doing the right thing (despite Ted Turner's exhortations back in the 90s that rich people should donate anything over 200,000)

Humanity's main social control: Shame :does not work on the rich, because no one doing the shaming is anywhere close enough to them to make it effective. Social insulation.

How do we make them feel the pain as well?
I leave that question as an exercise to the reader...

@4 - more like:

WHAT DO WE WANT!?
... TO SAVE OUR BUS ROUTES!!!

WHO SHOULD PAY FOR IT!?
... ALL OF US!!!

Not just *some* of us.

Chuck,
You see everything through a filter of age, race and sex don't you?
Shameful.

Agreed that if we want services, don't look for the rich to help finance them. Most of them have made it crystal clear that helping to make a more perfect union just isn't their thing. At this point they see themselves more as plantation owners than as citizens. The problem though is that the rich, because of their brittle ideological insecurity (to use a John Marshall term from TPM) don't want the rest of us work together to make a more perfect union either. They've drunk the Ayn Rand poison and now they insist we drink the same toxic ideological brew. Cause misery likes company, I suppose. So of course the Blethens come out against proposition 1 and the $15 minimum wage because ultimately they want to create a society of miserable, desperate and dependent people willing to accept and fight over whatever piece of crap drops off their feasting table. The only government 'service' they'll let us pay for is the establishment and maintenance of a police state that protects their 'property' from the rest of us and a war machine that allows the oligarchs to steal whatever they want from other countries.

Screed @10, well stated.

This reminds me, we keep hearing about Prop. 1 being a "regressive tax," and relatively speaking, yes, it is. But the people who are driving the argument that we should vote down Prop. 1 because it is a regressive tax are by and large people whose pocketbooks aren't affected by its regressiveness. Their concern about Prop. 1 being a regressive tax is about as sincere as all those commenters who magically showed up on the thread for The Stranger's Prop. 1 article.

I think back to a story on today's New York Times home page, "Report Finds Los Angeles at Risk of Decline." Blurb: "A commission delivered a scathing verdict on the civic health of the city, citing widespread poverty, huge pension obligations and paralyzing traffic with no solution in sight."

In our never-ending quest avoid inflicting any kind of pain on "regular people" (whether they be taxpayers or commuters or government workers) all we accomplish is to collectively inflict all the more pain on regular people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/us/rep…

In a authoritarian society, the powerful manage to keep the common man down. In a democracy--or a dysfunctional democracy--the powerful manage to find a way to get the common man to keep himself down.

The rich should be taxed at a higher rate than the poor because that's their fair share. You'll notice when raises and bonuses are issued that those at the top of the company get larger cuts on a percentage basis. Taxes should not be linear when raises and bonuses certainly aren't.

And the rich see greater benefit from their tax dollars. A poor person gets a ride on a bus. A business owner gets a more efficient commute for all their employees ensuring that they have access to a skilled workforce from around the region.

Property tax and a non resident millionaires tax

The first link is a worthy and relevant read:

"That is how we distinguish the merchant from the mugger. Both pursue their own interests [à la Adam Smith's 'invisible hand'], but only one does so in a manner that confers legitimacy on the gains."; that is, the Merchant follows his/her self interest legitimately, not so the mugger.

However, in the case of a bad merchant: "...the mean-spirited merchant['s activities] were checked by censure and disgrace." --- This is no more.

In the era of Bain Capital's activities, which are nothing more than complex financial robbery, greed has become effectively legalized.

Who honestly believes the rich don't pay the vast majority of the taxes?

In 2009, the shares of federal taxes paid by households in certain income quintiles were:

Lowest quintile: 0.3 percent
Middle quintile: 9.4 percent
Highest quintile: 67.9 percent

http://cbo.gov/publication/43373

Bless your heart, Cressona.

Let's tax the poor, some more! They can afford it, right? The rich? Sure they profit from us, but don't demand anything from them.

So giving! So charitable! So complacent!

@16, with friends like you, the workin' stiff don't need no enemies.

Looking forward to "TheMisanthrope's Guide to Preserving the Middle Class in the 21st Century."

@15,

And what's their share of the country's wealth? Additionally, what share of state and local taxes are they paying in comparison to their wealth?

I'll wait.

@17 With working stiffs like you, the rich have no opposition.

I look forward to Cressona's "The Liberal Guide to Keeping the Rich Richer by Letting Them Keep Their Money."

@16, 19...

What the hell is this asshole talking about?

"The Misanthrope" is possibly the most selfish fuck in these comments. He cares for no one but himself, without a trace of altruism or regard for his fellows. This clown is a classic concern troll hypocrite.

@19 Misanthrope do you agree that any resolution, good or bad, will occur in time? How much time do you think we have to get a more graceful distribution for the tax burden associated with paying for bus services?