u/Tenchi2020

I have a question about the idea of “paying your fair share” in America and what tax structure ultimately benefits the country as a whole.

I often hear conservatives point out that the top 1% already pay a massive percentage of taxes in America, and that’s true. Depending on the year, the top 1% pay roughly 40% of all federal income taxes.
But here’s what I struggle with.

The bottom 50% of Americans collectively hold only about $4 trillion in total wealth. The middle 40% of Americans hold roughly $36 trillion. Meanwhile, the top 1% alone hold nearly $50 trillion in total wealth.
Lower-income Americans often lose roughly 10–15% of their income through payroll taxes, sales taxes, and other taxes. Middle-class Americans can easily lose 20–30% of their income when federal income tax, payroll tax, state tax, and property tax are combined.
But when looking at the wealthiest Americans from a wealth perspective rather than income, many estimates suggest they effectively pay only around 1–3% of their total net worth annually because much of their wealth exists in appreciating assets like stocks, ownership stakes, and investments that are not taxed unless sold.

This is where I get confused.

A middle-class family may buy a home for $300,000, and over time that home may rise to $500,000. Even though they have not sold it and have not realized those gains, they often pay increasing property taxes every year based on that increased value.
Meanwhile, a billionaire may hold billions of dollars in stock that continues appreciating year after year, yet those gains can sit untaxed indefinitely because they have not been sold.

So my question is this.

If America structured taxes so that the ultra-wealthy contributed at a rate more comparable to what lower and middle-income Americans effectively give up relative to the assets they own, and that generated substantially more revenue for infrastructure, debt reduction, healthcare, education, or economic growth, would that ultimately create a stronger country overall?

Or do you believe the current system already produces the best long-term outcome for America?

I was leaving the pharmacy after picking up medication when I got back into my vehicle and began pulling out of my parking spot. As I started to back out, another vehicle was stopped in the parking lot in a way that blocked my path.
I then noticed a woman get out of the driver’s seat. She walked to the rear passenger-side door, opened it, and began aggressively swinging her arm into the vehicle. The first couple times I thought maybe she was reaching for something, but by the third violent motion I realized what I was witnessing. She was physically striking someone in the back seat.
This was not a simple smack on the leg or a moment of frustration. She was pulling her arm back behind her head and forcefully driving it into the vehicle with enough force that the entire vehicle was visibly rocking back and forth.

At that point I immediately laid on my horn and pulled my own vehicle forward, nearly hitting a parked car beside me so I could see what was happening. That is when I realized she was repeatedly hitting a child, approximately five years old, who was strapped into a car seat in the back of the vehicle.

I rolled down my window and yelled, “STOP HITTING THAT KID!”

She immediately stopped, turned toward me, and began screaming profanity. There was also a male passenger sitting in the front seat of the vehicle. I yelled that I was calling 911, and the male passenger responded very casually, “OK, go ahead.”
I then shouted, “I’m getting your tag. I’m calling the cops.”

At the time, my own child was in my vehicle with me. My son has special needs, including Down syndrome and level three autism. The woman then shut the rear door and took several steps toward my vehicle. My son was seated in the rear passenger side of my vehicle, the same side she was approaching from.
Concerned that she was going to physically confront my vehicle or create a dangerous situation involving my son, I immediately pulled forward to prevent her from getting close enough to attempt anything.
She then got back into her vehicle and began following me.
I drove slowly through the parking lot and onto the road. I made a right turn onto a main four-lane roadway with a center turn lane. Their vehicle turned in the exact same direction behind me, then suddenly made an aggressive U-turn, cutting off traffic in the process.

At that point, before calling 911, I first called the pharmacy where the incident had occurred and asked whether their parking lot cameras may have captured what happened. I explained the situation, and they told me they would review the footage.
I then immediately called 911 and filed a report.
Approximately thirty minutes later, the pharmacy called me back and informed me they had reviewed the footage, knew exactly who the woman was, and would provide the information directly to the sheriff’s office.

I immediately contacted the sheriff’s office again and relayed that the pharmacy had identified the woman and was waiting for law enforcement to come retrieve the information.

Roughly another thirty minutes later, the pharmacy called me a second time and informed me that the responding sheriff’s deputy was now inside the pharmacy and wanted to speak with me directly.
The deputy asked me to explain exactly what I witnessed. I provided a full statement detailing everything that occurred. He took down my information and advised me that I may be contacted again later if an additional statement is needed.

Witnessing this was genuinely traumatic.

The only thing I could think about afterward was what that poor child must be experiencing behind closed doors if their mother was willing to abuse them that violently, in broad daylight, in public, in a busy parking lot, without any fear of being seen.
I can only hope that because I stepped in and reported what I saw, that child may now have a chance at getting help.
I will update if I learn anything further.

First I wanna start off by saying I love my truck, everything's covered under warranty and each time they've had to have my truck they've put me into a loaner and very little of my time has been wasted and I'm not really been put into a position where I've been without a vehicle, my next truck is going to be an F150. I love the blue Cruise how comfortable the ride is and four and an F150 the gas mileage because I get 700 hundred miles on a tank. I also drive my truck with the utmost care, I never accelerate fast I never break hard I use my cruise control at every available point I can, highway driving, interstate driving and even around town. The adaptive cruise control and other safety features as well as my connectivity features, I can start my truck through the app and with Siri, I have Alexa available which works great when I don't have signal on my phone and we are driving around, the blue Cruise makes our long drives to Tennessee and Pensacola feel so much shorter. With that being said here's the list:

PCM burned out and replaced

All four tires replaced due to misaligned toes from the factory

Transmission replaced

Driver seat replaced twice due to vent for cooled seat breaking

AC repaired

Front end replaced

Splash guard fell off and replaced

Rear end replaced

Things that my F150 is going back into the shop for on June 1:

Front end needs to be replaced again

Sunroof anti-pinch does not work and broke my Insta360 invisible stick which is made from aluminum

Transmission shifting hard again.