Why the 1% should pay tax at 80%

[Bison Fan in NW MN]

We're talking about the 1% dude...
You know the 400 people in America who control 50% of all of the money

try to keep up

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/sta ... e-wealth-/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And yet if we take 100% of EVERYTHING those top 400 have we can't even balance the budget for one year. We have a spending problem not a revenue problem.

Where is the rep button.....

This is very accurate!!

[GannonFan]

And kalmy thinks all those things entitle the government to treat all income as government-sourced and whatever you get to keep of that income is by the good grace of the same government. Oh, and in that list you basically list environmental protection three separate times.

Well it's really important dammit!

Question: how do we quantify a clean environment and standard of living in theses equations? What's their value? Is it ever measured or considered?

Those are two different things. A clean environment is very easy to quantify and it's far lower than the $3-$4 trillion the federal government spends every year. Let's be honest, the government's expenditure on ensuring a clean environment is a miniscule part of the budget (and let's be honest, after the rules are established the enforcement part of it is pretty straightforward). Standard of living, well, I'm not sure how government can dictate what that is, at any price. How would you quantify it, and how would you even go about enforcing whatever that is?