I tell ya, the present thing is rough. When I was a kid, I got cards from aunts and uncles. But now they all send gifts. So there is 5 gifts right there. Then there is the grandparents. They have so much time to shop, they can bring 5+ gifts for each kid and only spend $50. So we are already at 15 and we didn’t even buy anything yet. It’s nuts.
Also, everything seems to have to be a gift now. Can’t just buy a thing and give it to them. It has to wait to be a present. Or maybe that’s just my wife.
But also, when I was a kid, even in the rural area I lived, there was a convenience story where we could buy gum, or baseball cards and stuff for very little money. Now a pack of Pokémon is like $6 for way less cards. The only cheap things kids can buy is candy, and we aren’t supposed to let them do that anymore either. So everything ends up as a present.
Well my question was really about what “should” means to you. I have 2 kids, so my effective tax rate is like 25% or something. If I understand things right, the billionaires work things so they have very little taxable income, making thier 35% more like 1% of their actual income. So are you saying if a millionaire still pays thier taxes based on actual income, not using the method that billionaires use to lower their taxable income, then they are paying the taxes that they should pay?