
Our Tax System Explained: "Bar Stool Economics" - acangiano
http://www.ballreviews.com/Forum/Replies.asp?TopicID=187215&ForumID=80&CategoryID=5
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Harkins
What's not mentioned in the story is that the tenth guy owned the bar. Not
only was he drinking for free, he keeps his overhead down by not paying the
first four guys (migrant workers) much of anything and occasionally chats with
other bar owners to make sure nobody charges too little.

The other nine guys might have learned this, but the local paper needed the
bar's advertising dollars and the local politicians are the tenth guy's
golfing buddies.

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ajross
True enough. The other missing bit from the metaphor is that the 10th guy is
actually buying most of his beer (and overwhelmingly _more_ beer) at the "long
term" rate, which is the same rate that the other guys would pay. So while his
bar tab looks high, he drinks at home for almost free. Needless to say, he
doesn't spend much time in the bar.

Also, while it's stepping outside the clever metaphor: the 10th guy is
literally tens of thousands of times wealthier than the 1st guy. Most normal
people would consider that an important moral point in any discussion about
who is paying "too much" for their beer.

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mattmaroon
What he neglects to mention is that the requisite cost of living for guy 10 is
not any higher than for guy 1. But guy 1 pays a much higher % of his overall
earnings to the government due to capital gains taxes and low estate taxes.

Ask Warren Buffet what he thinks:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLD0p1QpcI8&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLD0p1QpcI8&feature=related)

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nothackernews
Not hacker news.

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gunderson
True... it's for former-hackers who succeeded financially and now pay a lot of
income tax.

