Maybe it's me that's out of touch, but if $250K is "middle class," I've been very poor my entire life.

It is upper middle class to be sure, but someone making $200-$250K is not rich. People in that category work, and most people in that category would be dead broke if out of work for 6 months to a year. My mom used to say when you're rich you don't work for your money, your money works for you. However, here in Maryland our beloved governor just defined "rich" as anyone making over $100K a year, and raised taxes on that group.

It's a pretty simple answer, really. The median income in the US is around $50k. That means, literally, that the class in the middle averages about $50k/yr.

The fallacy here, however, is that we keep framing this as a matter of class war when in fact it should just be a question of common decency. While one will never become wealthy by counting his or her neighbour's wealth, our nation's (alarmingly increasing) poor population will never be helped out if the wealthy cling mercilessly to theirs.

We are in this together, whether ya like it or not!

-d-

Why can't we all just pay a flat 10%? Why make it difficult?

Is there a written law~ or statute that specifically requires any private citizen to disclose private property information?
Is there even a specific law that gives the government the authority to demand that anyone file a specific tax reporting form?
I'm not referring to the 16th Amendment to the Constitution either....I need the actual written law that can be identified, understood and clearly read, and that could perhaps be included as a part of the Carroll County education curriculum...

Do tainted facts still qualify as fact?

I don’t think that there is a specific federal statute that requires disclosure of private information, but the IRS has been given the right to collect taxes and that encompasses the right to collect information about finances. Look, a lot of people think the income tax is illegal and unconstitutional and they assume that if they can only come up with the right legal arguments, the Supreme Court will strike down the tax. (Of course, some of those people are in jail right now). But the income-tax law was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1916 (in the Brushaber case), and in the succeeding 96 years, no Supreme Court has contradicted that holding. We have to face the facts: like it or not, the constitutionally endowed courts have determined that the Constitution empowers the Congress to levy any tax it wants. Reading one’s libertarian values into the Constitution is futile. For better or worse, the Constitution means what the occupants of the relevant constitutional offices say it means. Teaching schoolchildren anything different is doing them a disservice. They need to understand how to work within the system to change the laws that they disagree with--not ignore those laws nor engage in wishful thinking.

Are corrupt courts the rulers of our Country?

Do elected officials at any level have the authority to identify " class", when engaging in class warfare through illegal taxation?

Taxation is not a "non-law"--there are federal statutes and regulations that allow taxation; the regulations support the statutes and provide the filing and information requirements. (I just don't know offhand what they are, but if you don't pay your taxes I am sure that you will soon find out exactly what statutes and regulations are at issue.) The Courts don't make laws, but the tax statutes (enacted by Congress which DOES have the right to make laws) have been upheld by the Supreme Court, which has the authority to interpret the laws, and decide if those laws are Constitutional. That is how we make laws in this country. And just because we don't agree with a court's decision doesn't make the court corrupt. (The cry that the Courts are corrupt have been made by millions of people who have lost in court).

And yes, if you don't obey the law, you can be prosecuted and jailed. You can't be prosecuted or jailed just for QUESTIONING the legality of the income tax, only for not obeying that law. You can publish articles, write letters of complaint, you can picket the IRS buildings, you can form your own half-assed political party--none of which can subject you to prosecution. You just can't refuse to pay your taxes based on a theoretical legal theory that has been settled for almost 100 years.

You want to teach children the truth--teach them that no one likes paying taxes, but that there is not a civilized country in the world in which taxes are not imposed.