[SamIam]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

All I have said all along is that for all people to feel invested they have to pay into the system to feel responsible for it. And IMHO everyone should pay something into the system to feel a part of it.

No, this is what you said:

So you think that because you paid some small portion of your lifetime income you have a say in how all Federal Income Tax is taken from a minority of the population and redistributed to the rest of the population? Seriously?

Right there, you are saying that me and the rest of the Americans who fall into that 47% statistical group should have no voice in how government spending is appropriated.

You can't have it both ways. I agree that people who pay into "the system" feel more invested in it or "responsible" as you would say, but as I and others here have pointed out to you, Americans pay plenty of taxes despite the fact that some temporarily do not have to pay the Federal Income Tax.

I am active on other forums - one quite huge - and believe me, people in that lower 47% are from the far right to the far left and have all sorts of suggestions on government spending. They are scarcely like Oliver Twist holding out his bowl and begging, "More please."

I realized that you are deeply entrenched in your position, and I'm not going to waste anymore time trying to get you to look at other points of view.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I mean no personal disrespect to you or your personal situation and I don't want to even know anything about it...

Well, thank you. And no one, even you, is going to find out about my personal situation until I get my book contract signed.

Who says I am a fat cat? I just happen to be in the group that always pays taxes. And is that not telling about the whole issue. People who pay taxes, according to you are "fat cats", and people who don't are "disenfranchised".

Well, I can't resist pulling your tail. And from what you post here, it sounds as though you are doing quite well and are resentful of your tax burden as well as government oversight and regulation of big buisnesses both here and at home, with the petroleum companies as just one example. That to me sounds like a weight challenged cat who owns oil shares among other things.

But I could be wrong. Maybe you live in a cardboard box and connect to the Internet via a public library terminal. I don't know and really don't want to, either.

Paying taxes is not a criteria of mine for defining "fat cats", and you are the one who suggested that people in the lower 47% should not have a say in government spending, thus disenfranchising them.