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Our Tax System Explained: Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, 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 beer by $20.' Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar 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, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'
'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too.
It's unfair that he got ten times more than I got' 'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? 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 the tenth man didn't show up for drinks so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how our 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 anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

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Priceless.

3

Miracle hail mary to win the game with 16 seconds left. LEWL!


http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/video/1646822

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Owning as usual^^


I have a major gripe with how the NFL handles it's primetime scheduled games on Sunday nights and Monday nights. I'll go into the Sunday night games first. Take last night's game as a prime example. At the end of spring/beginning of summer when the NFL schedule for the following season is realeased, "marquee" matchups are dotted throughout the schedule. These games are between teams considered to be pre season superbowl contenders. Usually these assumptions are rooted in how far the said team advanced in the playoffs last year or how many regular season wins they amassed. These games are usually pre selected to be played on Sunday/Monday night in primetime to showcase 2 "great" teams in the hopes of having the "best" game of the week. These days, it's a very rare thing to have the best games of the week be played either on Sunday OR Monday night. If you've ever watched 2 consecutive seasons of the NFL, mostly everything from one year is altered in some way the following year.

Take for example the Superbowl runner up "curse". 7 of the last 13 losers in the Superbowl didn't even make the playoffs the following year. In this day and age in the NFL it's very hard to keep winning year in and year out. Opposing teams catch up with your wrinkles and what you're doing. Injuries usually ALWAYS play a factor in the inevitable destruction of a team that's poised for a slip anyway. With this as the case, it really made what the New England Patriots of the past 5 or 6 years all the more impressive. So, New England went 16-0 last year, blew through the playoffs beating the Jags and the Chargers and lost in the super bowl to the New York Giants. This year, the Patriot's season ended 7 minutes into the first game. Brady went down with a season ending injury and this team became very ordinary. The bad thing is that:

IT DOESN'T CHANGE HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE TO WATCH THE BRADY-LESS PATRIOTS ON PRIME TIME TV THIS YEAR. IT DOESN'T CHANGE HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE TO SIT THROUGH WATCHING MATT CASSEL STRUGGLE TO MOVE AN OFFENSE THAT SET EVERY MAJOR OFFENSIVE RECORD LAST YEAR. Because the NFL refuses to schedule their Sunday/Monday night games on a WEEK TO WEEK basis, I have to watch newly fashioned LOSER teams play in actually terrible games. They really need to have their newly created "flex schedule" implemented in as soon as week 2 or 3. I mean, how many times do I have to watch the shitty Cleveland Browns this year because they beat BAD TEAMS last year to go 10-6? I don't want to see the Matt Cassel led Patriots every other week in primetime because of what Brady and Moss did last season. These games suck balls and the ratings of the primetime games won't ever be what they really should be until the NFL makes it a point to showcase the league's best teams in primetime games.

Anyway, I'm gonna go watch the G men cream the Cleveland Oranges and hope for a better game next week.

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Have you ever seen a Police Cruiser getting gas? I have. I've also seen a school bus getting gas. It took me 18 years to realize I had never seen either.