To Sleep, Perchance To Dream of An Unrealistic Bernie Based Economy

Have you recovered from the big BERN-ing man gathering in Yakima?  Wisecracks aside, It IS a big deal when a presidential candidate comes to town and many of my more liberal friends are still buzzing about the visit.  One of KIT’s more conservative friends has a different take on Sanders supporters.  Here’s a piece from Tim Bryce with the encouragement to check out his full take at www.timbryce.com .

“There have been some recent videos on television and the Internet showing young supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders being interviewed and asked why they support the Vermont senator. Many say they want free education and other entitlements, but have no idea how to pay for it. Those who claim to like the Socialist agenda, cannot explain the differences between socialism and capitalism. For example, they are clueless about the recent problems in Greece. Supporting Bernie though is the "hip" thing to do from a young person's perspective. It is reminiscent of the Winston Churchill quote whereby, "Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain."

To illustrate the problem, it is disheartening that younger people do not understand who pays the most in income taxes, the 1% they love to lambast, or the rest of the country. According to Pew Research - "In 2013, according to our analysis of preliminary IRS data, people with adjusted gross incomes above $250,000 paid nearly half (48.9%) of all individual income taxes, though they accounted for only 2.4% of all returns filed. Their average tax rate (total taxes paid divided by cumulative AGI) was 25.6%. By contrast, people whose incomes were less than $50,000 accounted for 63.4% of all individual income tax returns filed in 2013, but they paid just 6.2% of total taxes; their average tax rate was 4.2%."

Tim has more to say about “feelin the Bern” at www.timbryce.com

Tim Bryce is a writer and the Managing Director of M&JB Investment Company (M&JB) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has over 30 years of experience in the management consulting field. He can be reached at timb001@phmainstreet.com