Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for November 12, 2024

Yes, what was he thinking. Might get cancelled.

Sadly, this true and is likely to get worse during the next four years. When I was in law school, the top bracket for federal income tax was 70% and all the rich people were still filthy rich. We should do that again.

The rich buy politicians that change the law to benefit the rich.

See dark money.

Make America great again tax the rich and rebuild our infrastructure.

You generally don’t get there in the first place if you’re the sort of person who thinks that way…paraphrasing Einstein: ‘Capitalism breeds predators’…He wasn’t just smart at the molecular level.

That’s why Elon is working with Trump and not Carl.

Magats will not understand that today’s comic is satire.

They believe that preferential tax treatment for the rich and for patriotic multinational corporations benefit them personally.

And they believe that American tariffs are paid for by other countries.

And still be making 200 times more than your employees. And you would still be outrageously, filthy rich.

There’s nothing new here.

…and it’s only going to get worse…

It’s possible that someday the 1% will realize they need us a lot more than we need them; but I doubt it.

Surely guillotines can’t cost that much to make?

Since I am not filthy rich I guess I don’t have the right personality to even understand this level of greed. I am always happy when I share with others.

No Shi! Keep Dreaming you idiot, lying trump will lower their tax rate and raise yours! I warned you garbage brain people what will happen!!!

A bit off topic, but I think GoComics has done us a disservice in turning off comments on political cartoons. There is a lot of crap in cartoons from the “usual suspects” that is getting by without commentary. That is true of both right and left wing cartoonists. I also personally don’t like it when I don’t get a chance to say, “What does that mean?” I suspect it has more to do with heavy traffic overwhelming the site than it did with actual content of what was being said. Just my opinion.

And every attempt to fix this has been met with outrage by those who complain the loudest.

It’s a non sequitur.

I was once told by a fellow History teacher who leaned quite far to the right of me that I was “envious” and that “anybody can achieve such wealth” here. The poor man had no response when I asked, “why would one would wish to die with the most tokens?” It is still quite beyond me.

Compared to a few generations ago, there are swarms of billionaires these days. The real status to aim for in the future will be that of Trillionaire.

Here we go…

Factoring in income, payroll, corporate, and other taxes, those in the top 10% of income pay an average 27% tax rate. That’s the highest tax rate of all the deciles. That same top 10% earned 52.6% of all income but paid 75.8% of all income taxes.

That ratio of taxes to income of 1.44 is the highest among developed countries; the United States actually has the most progressive tax system among developed countries.

The Orange Man will squander the strong economy he inherits with Tax Breaks for the Rich, High Tariffs(tax on poor and middle class) , Pulling out of Treaties and Accords (America will go from a leader to after thought), Stripping the powers from the EPA (more pollution and more Climate Change). After the next 4 years with more Voodoo Economics (Trickle Down Economics that never trickles) all of the people who thought The Orange Man would help them are in for a big surprise.

Let’s leave politics out of the comics. Stick to Danae, the New Englandahs and the Bears. God Bless America.

Excellent Capture of the conversation – in the DEMOCRAT ELITE DONOR LOUNGE!

“On Hold” leaves me wondering where this will go in next installment.

Remember, the top 10% pay 78% of all federal tax. The next 40% (the middle class) pay 20% of all federal tax. The bottom 50% pay only 2% of all federal tax. These are FACT that are easily confirmed at the IRS site.

I may throw up, because this is happening EVERYWHERE!

On Jan 20, 2025 need a website that captures key prices and statistics for the day and then going forward shows the monthly trend, asking are you better or worse?

I truly believe there will come a day, when a family or friend or acquaintance will state “I didn’t know that Trump would do this…”

I really don’t understand WHY a billionaire wants tax cuts. He can never, never, never spend even a small fraction of what he already has. So why does he want MORE?

But that’s what greed is: The greedy person doesn’t want money because of what he can do with it. He wants it just because it’s money.

The Bible says the love of it is the root of all evil, and some people prove the Bible is right about that.

Spoken like a true liberal who just had a ton of billionaires donate to Kamala’s run for the presidency. Which is the real party of the rich?

The most misquoted text in the Bible is, “Money is the root of all evil.” The correct quote is “The Love of money is the root of all evil.”

I have no problem with some people having more than others as long as everybody has enough.

400x? Feels more like 4000×. CEOs are now glorified cheerleaders. It’s such an easy job you have people like Muskie being the CEO of multiple companies at once. And when things go bad due to their incompetence, fire people who do the actual work to make the shareholders happy.

There comes a point where you stop owning things and things start owning you.

I’ve never volunteered to be a slave no matter how good the “pay and benefits” were.

You also have to remember the facts of scope and scale. If I as an employer give my one (1) full-time employee even a dollar an hour raise, that’s a cost to me of $40 a week. Where is my business to get that additional $40 / week? Now figure it out for more substantial raise amounts and greater numbers of employees. What seems like very minimal changes can be seen to very quickly compute out to very substantial expense. Where is that $$ to come from ?

read the small book: “Lies, D^^n Lies and Statistics”. You can find a statistic somewhere to support your lies. Or just invent one and challenge anyone to refute it.

Even the simplest economic analysis will demonstrate that there is little room to increase wages and C-Level compensation is insignificant to the bottom line.

If Musk intended to crash the U.S. stock market, it could benefit him and other wealthy investors by allowing them to buy assets at low prices. For the wealthy, a deep recession is manageable, but for average Americans, it could mean extreme hardship, possibly worse than the Great Depression. If another pandemic were to arise, targeting marginalized communities with limited access to healthcare, the resulting population reduction would make the country more “manageable” for the elite, who could then consolidate power and wealth. Meanwhile, Americans can also expect the retirement age for Social Security to increase without a rise in benefits, alongside cuts to social services like housing, fuel assistance, food stamps, and education. These changes would primarily serve the wealthy and politicians supporting them, leaving average citizens to shoulder the burden of an economy that increasingly caters to those at the top.

Unfortunately, true. Also likely to get much worse.

That’s what Ford did, made sure his employees could afford to buy the product they made…

hmmm…watta ya expect when the federal reserve and the 16th amendment were brought into existence…tax attorneys, accountants, PACs that write the tax code…for starters abolish the 16th amendment…doing so will cut into the money laundering programs of the military-industrial complex as well as the federal spending social/corporate welfare complex…what is so wrong for the American wage earner to enjoy 100% fair share of the fruit of his labor?

If we had set an example by simply tossing Nixon’s behind in the can, we probably could have ended this all right then and there.

I am a bit puzzled why no one here seems to be concerned about our national debt.

The country just voted to have this get even worse. First priority of new congress another tax cut for the very wealthy. Couple that with crushing tariffs that will raise prices and exacerbate inflation. The people wanted this, the people voted for this and the people deserve this.

At that level, the “tax rate” is primarily based on capital gains, not income – and usually long-term capital gains.

Yes, increasing that will tax them more, but will also tax those down the income chain more too – including retirees and others with investment plans. Not that raising capital gains taxes is a bad idea, it’s actually a good one. But it’s not a ‘tax the rich only’ idea.

When overtime pay for hourly workers gets messed with in a way that benefits employers, I wonder if the non union working class will notice.

That’s what the republican peasants voted for.

Elon Musk has managed to lose more money than anyone in the history of money and yet remains the richest man on the planet. How much do you think he pays in taxes and salaries.

They need a consult with Elon.

Obviously the more evenly wealth is spread the healthier the economy would be. But certain politicians still push trickle-down theory.

Something not mentioned in today’s cartoon or comments: the tax rate on earnings for those in the highest brackets does not apply to ALL of their annual income. The amounts not taxed varies by annual declared income level. There are many web sites which display income tax rates from the year 1913 — when the 16th Amendment authorizing income tax in the US was passed — through to the present. For example, from the bradfordtaxinstitute dot com:

In 1913, the States ratified the 16th Amendment, instituting the federal income tax. The 1913 tax looks nothing like it looks today. For example, where the actual form and directions fit on a mere four pages in 1913, they total an intimidating 106 pages today.

1. Click here to see the 1913 IRS Form 1040.

2. Click here to see the latest IRS Form 1040.

The tax law, like almost all laws, grows as lawmakers use it for pork, try to make it fairer, use it to stimulate a sector of the economy, or just want to raise revenue.

If you’re in business for yourself, you have a lot of control over how much you pay in taxes. Learn how to reduce your taxes – legally – with a free, no-obligation 7-day trial subscription to the Tax Reduction Letter. Sign up here.

As Will Rogers said: “The difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”

In 1913, the top tax bracket was 7 percent on all income over $500,000 ($11 million in today’s dollars1); and the lowest tax bracket was 1 percent.

…

The Depression

Congress raised taxes again in 1932 during the Great Depression from 25 percent to 63 percent on the top earners.

World War II

As we mentioned earlier, war is expensive.

In 1944, the top rate peaked at 94 percent on taxable income over $200,000 ($2.5 million in today’s dollars3). That’s a high tax rate.

The 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s

Over the next three decades, the top federal income tax rate remained high, never dipping below 70 percent.

The top 1% pay more taxes than any other group – contributing more than 45% to total revenues brought in.The problem is not with taxing, it is with spending.

 Germany 1945 • Postmortem

 They first came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.

 USA 2025 • Premortem

They first came for the illegal immigrants and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an illegal immigrant.

Then they came for the liberal media and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a media person, let alone a liberal.

[rest of the story remains to be written]

Not much of a pivot, between the government and corporate world which do you think is the dog and which is the tail. I can guarantee you the tail never wags the dog. But you’d rather complain and act like government is always the solution. What, afraid to bite the hand that feeds you??? Happy Tuesday ! ;-)

No wonder it stinks. Oh the humanity.

May they all burn in the deepest pit of Hell for all eternity!

Sad, but true

I’ll bet we could cut our taxes to almost nothing by convincing enough people that a flat tax is actually fair

High-Income Taxpayers Paid the Majority of Federal Income Taxes. In 2021, the bottom half of taxpayers earned 10.4 percent of total AGI and paid 2.3 percent of all federal individual income taxes. The top 1 percent earned 26.3 percent of total AGI and paid 45.8 percent of all federal income taxes

Somebody up there thinks that a flat tax is a fair tax. What a … well, I don’t have a word for that which won’t p!s$$ that person off.

Midas save us, we’ve just turned the national economy over to a guy who managed to bankrupt 4 casinos. CASINOS!!!

The time for this has long past.

The people with the gold make the rules.

They only make 400 times more than their employees??? They are doing something wrong! They must be new!

It’s at 60%. For those bent on punishing success, ask yourself when was the last time you were hired by a pauper?

Well, if you’ve got the authority (and the money) why SHOULDN’T you throw your weight around? And to h&ll with the economy. As we say down here – ’I’m all right, Jack".

You should have taken economics instead of law. You wouldn’t have as much money, but you know more about how the works actually works. It’s a cinch Miller doesn’t.

Trump has been living off unpaid bank loans(not just from the USA) all his adult life.His actual ready cash flow is $89.27.

lol. So no matter that they already pay millions in taxes. You feel they should still pay more. Blue fever cracks me up. It’s always someone else should pay more. Never stop and ask yourself where does all the money that they have go.

BWWHAHAHAHAHA! According to the OMB, the top 1% pay over 40% of the taxes while the bottom 95% pay 33%. Fair share much?

Actually, they are able to write off business expenses, so those are not taxed.

I do not care how much someone else makes, I would prefer to be paid the market value.