Does this help in understanding taxes and the rich?

Question

Suppose that everyday 10 men go to dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If it was paid the way we pay our taxes, the first four men would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. 
The 10 men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until the owner threw them a curve. Since you are all such good customers, he said, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20. Now dinner for the 10 only costs $80. 
The first four are unaffected. They still eat for free. Can you figure out how to divvy up the $20 savings among the remaining six so that everyone gets his fair share? The men realize that $20 divided by 6 is $3.33, but if they subtract that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being paid to eat their meal. 
The restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. 
And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of $59. Outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. 
"I only got a dollar out the $20," declared the sixth man pointing to the tenth, "and he got $7!" 
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. I only saved a dollar, too.   It's unfair that he got seven times more than me! 
"That's true," shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $7 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. The system exploits the poor." 
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They were $52 short! 
And that, boys and girls, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. There are lots of good restaurants in Switzerland and the Caribbean

frogspeaceflower · Accepted Answer

Awww the ever popular tortured artist effect. LOL Just kidding. No the tax system is not perfect, but we do enjoy a rather wonderful standard of living. I'm not rich, but I'm happy. Peace to you from frogspeaceflower. And also hello to aprock. Valid point honey. The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.

APRock · Answer

That analogy has been used many times before in the past.  It is quite accurate, but, like some have said, there are those that just refuse to turn on their brains and get it.  

G - Who are you to decide what or how much someone needs? (Wealth Envy rears its ugly head) That isn't what this country is about.  If folks can't enjoy the fruits of thier labor and pass it on to their progeny, then what is the point of achieving anything?  Might as well just exist and let someone else take care of things, except THAT means somebody has to do the work, mental or physical, to take care of those things YOU need.  If they do most of the work, they are going to want to benefit from that, in the same measure as the effort they put in.  That means they will have more than those that just sit around letting others do for them.

Nobody ever gets a job from a poor person.  Rich people won't stay that way without working at it, and paying (jobs) other people to help keep them that way.

ram456456 · Answer

Yes, but it depends on the wealthy persons spending habits too hahah, countries have nasty taxes VAT that are regressive where the tax is passed at different stages of production in the candy bar costs 3 bucks in taxes and 50 cents to make. Its a civic repsondilibty to pay taxes, but a fair tax is the best to collect taxes because compsumtion is taxed instead of capital accumulation. linoseme liberals do distort the tax and wealth argument. Saying its not fair a person can make 300 times more than the poorest poor at a job. Do Liberals hear of diminishing return for income?  I be live in the philosophy there more to life than money. Stop, worrying about the CEOs making 300 times more than you. Should get at the local goverment robbing you try in property taxes to pay for fancy ritizy schools or the city concil turning the local community center into a amsusement park. Materialism, and Keeping up with Ms Jones is useless because your taking up free time working to pay for a material good for diminished value. Value things you have family , Friend , neighbors, nature. Liberals make me go blah at times, but I do agree with them not involving taxes, or the ecomony

Anonymous · Answer

A good example to convey your point.  Liberal Dems will never understand tax policy.  Many suffer from class envy, and the rich ones from guilt.  Regardless of whether I can pay more in taxes, the money is my personal property that I earned.  Everyone should be concerned when government is confiscating personal property (especially evident with the estate tax).  The point is that it is WRONG.  Violation of personal freedoms (how I spend or invest my money) should be a concern of all Americans.  If they can take away my property, they can take away yours.

Strangle the goose that lays the golden eggs and all will suffer (as your men at dinner soon noticed).

ymicgee · Answer

Too complicated 4 those who have been raised to believe that they should get everything everyone else has simply because they exist. 
Its much easier to believe that:
-I could be rich but no one will help me 
-If your rich, you should share your hard earned $ because "I didnt get any breaks and deserve a plasma TV"
-The rich people should be forced to support their fellow citizens who CHOOSE to NOT use their talents and determination to contribute to society.....etc
WE have produced a large segment of society that believes that the government MUST provide. They have no desire to become productive members of society as they can live rather comfortably off the "government  and charity programs".  It is so much easier to not waste time or $ on things when if "worked right"-  can be obtained  free or at reduced cost. 
To them $$$ made by the rich somehow deprives them....
There R people w/ legitimate needs but you R correct..the rich and middle class may need to re-educate some of our fellow citizens. 
Most of the rich did not wish for thier lifestyle or success-they worked and trained to achieve.
They unlike the wishers and whiners pay higher taxes which are supposed to be used to help the sick,orphaned elderly etc...NOT used to fund a national health plan because most people whine they cant afford medical care  ( gee do I pay a monthly premium for health insurance or pay my premium cable subscriptions,or buy a new Ipod,plasma TV,$150 brand name sneakers, take a cruise....
You R right  the very rich may choose switzerland cafes or off shore accounts.

Anonymous · Answer

well... I understand your analogy... but the only thing is... the richest man still has one billion in the bank... while the others do not... 

to me.. it's about disposable income... and that guy that got the biggest cut, can most afford to pay his share... he wasn't counting on that money to feed his kids or pay a house payment... 

and all those other men probably work just as hard as he does... but he inherited it from his father...

so he gets more money back that he didn't even need to begin with... 

if he cares about his money more than America...which most seem to... good riddance if they want to go... America is the best country and they can "enjoy" the crapiness of Switzerland... and when it gets invaded... we may forget about them... 

see how much the invading army cares about his billions...

scarlettt... I don't want revenge... I want rich people to care more about America than an extra million THAT THEY HAVE NO NEED FOR ANYWAY...

Floyd B · Answer

Taxes smaxes.

When 1% of the people control over 50% of the wealth The money has to come from some where.

scarlettt_ohara · Answer

That makes a lot of sense. Unfortunatly when it means that they cannot somehow get revenge for not being rich, they just do not want to hear it.  Oh well, one day they will end up stuck with the bill

cashcobra_99 · Answer

It is a great analogy but some are two thickheaded to get it. They are like a 1950's robot with a problem it does not understand. They run around with their arms waving frantically screaming "It does not compute. It does not compute. ERROR ERROR!" They do this because their "feelings" can't process the logic of your argument.

extton · Answer

Your mathematics skills need refining, and your analogy is convoluted and poor.

If you want to make a point, you're better off being more concise.

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Does this help in understanding taxes and the rich?

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