Gaines Gunn0:00 Alright, so there's uh been a lot of conversation about taxes and you know, taxing the wealthy um and taxing corporations in America.0:09 And uh personally I I believe in um lower taxes for everyone, but I also have learned some reasons why taxing the uber wealthy just doesn't work.0:19 It just because they are able to avoid taxes, and so how they do this is um as a as a CEO of a company or as a high up in a company, they decide that their paychecks are going to be um given in shares of the company, right?0:34 And so you can't tax shares of the company.0:36 And then what they do is instead of selling the shares when they need money to go buy a house or buy a car, you know, live life, they then go to the bank and they say, Hey, look at all these shares that I have in this company.0:48 And so they get out like a $10 million loan backed by their shares in the company.0:53 Loans aren't taxable.0:55 So then they're able to go and spend all this money backed by their loans and then or backed by their stock holding stock stock equity, and um basically it's this never ending cycle of there is no taxable income, and so the IRS can't legally get them for income.1:12 Now, while they do pay the Uber wealthy do pay taxes um to an extent, um it's a very interesting concept that I kind of I learned about recently.1:22 Um so I kind of want to get people's opinions on this, you know, like taxing and tax brackets and you know, taxing these wealthy people.1:32 Um personally, I come from a family where my dad earned every penny that he has, and so I think that people who work hard and earn their money should be able to keep it and it should be in their hands.1:44 Um that's just my opinion.1:46 You know, I I think that there are many other people who have other opinions.1:48 So I'd love to hear your opinions about this topic.1:51 Um, and maybe if you think that I'm I'm wrong about my kind of assumptions and conclusions about taxing the rich, I'd love to hear your opinion on that as well.1:59 But I do think that it's concerning that our country, our country um entered a revolution based on taxes on sugar and tea and stamps.2:11 And I think it's just really interesting that now we are all paying incredibly exponentially more on taxes than we did when we founded this revolution from from the British.2:24 So I think that's definitely something to keep it to account as we move forward um in elect policymakers.2:30 Um, I think I do understand the concept of taxing the rich.2:36 You know, they have a lot more money, and so it's it makes some sort of logical sense, but it's also it's a very interesting concept to raise taxes, period, simply because our country was founded on standards of wanting taxes to be lower.2:49 So I'd love to hear people's uh opinions on this.2:52 You know, I'm very um unbiased, I don't have incredibly strong opinions on this, but I do want to hear some people's information on this.
Vansh Patel0:00 James, I think you bring up an excellent point.0:02 It's one that I haven't done the most research on, but I'd still like to give my opinion.0:07 Uh I think right now our middle class is being driven to the ground with taxes.0:13 Uh the Uber wealthy, like you mentioned, are finding these loopholes as they are part of big business and big business is the only way to become Uber wealthy in America.0:25 Uh to become super wealthy in America.0:29 Uh these high level white colour jobs, such as doctors, lawyers, uh, engineers, are the ones burdening uh with the most tax in America.0:41 We they're they're being driven to the ground uh because of how much they pay.0:45 They have some of the highest rates.0:47 Uh being barely above that highest bracket, they're paying almost all, if not half their money in taxes.0:56 Uh I I don't think that's fair.0:59 You know, I haven't done the statistical analysis on flat rate versus a bracketed system, but I think there needs to be a change with uh that middle ground right now, because it's almost as if they're being punished for hiring having those higher salaries.1:15 So I don't think it's fair to punish our uh our knowledgeable experts in almost every field for being uh advanced.1:24 Uh just to have tax bringing them back down to a normal level.1:28 Uh another thing is when you look out throughout history, uh if the rates right now were the rates back in the day, they would have thrown a revolution.1:38 I mean, that was the foundation of this country.1:41 That was the basis of uh our revolution.1:44 I mean, unjust tax.1:47 That was the reason that we u overthrow the government.1:50 And uh we do have the right to overthrow the government right now, but you know, I say where do we draw that line between what is unjust and what is just in the tax system and you know the uber wealthy are always gonna be able to get out of it.2:05 Uh they there's always gonna be a loophole no matter how many mandates you throw out, they're most likely gonna figure out a way uh to find that because uh a lot of them don't get a salary.2:17 Uh and you know it's unfortunate, but it's very smart for them.2:23 They they don't have to pay uh much in federal income tax.2:28 So yeah, I think there needs to be a major change to the the middle class category uh in our tax system and how they're really just being driven to the ground right now.2:39 Uh if there's some way to ease their burden, I think that needs to be addressed.2:44 So good point.