Quote from PocketChange:
I don't think anyone really has any control over the situation. All of the excessive monetary printing will catch up and overnight one day our $ will buy 20% of what it does today. All it takes is for IMF to set a new peg rate or the chindians to further manipulate the exchange.
There are so many angles in play... above the line deductions will buy you your tax rate more worth of goods. Further reducing your buying power is the excessive transactional tax gouging of your post tax $.. soda tax/ sin tax / sales tax.
Reality is even those that pay no income tax spend nearly 100% of their earnings for the basic necessities to survive (gas, food, rent) and are paying approx 10% in transactional taxes.
Those employed earning a modest middle class income $100K pay 20% or so in taxes and are left with 80K post tax to get clipped 10% as they spend it.
Those that can manipulate the system by deferring taxes (Offshore income) and use pre-tax dollars do much better...
Ultimately.. those that cheat and move their assets offshore can walk away and leave behind huge tax bills and debts... They get to live their lives out as cash rich kings somewhere outside of the US and still collect their social security benefits.