Quote Originally Posted by Hazir View Post
Still Dread, the reason why you pay a bigger chunk of your income for housing is because you made the choice to live in an area that is too expensive for you. And tax deductability enabled you to make that choice.
Quote Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy View Post
I acknowledge that problem exists. I don't feel it's a big enough problem to be concerned about, much less justify a systemic redesign of the tax structure.
Eh? Tax deductability hasn't enabled my choice. I made my financial considerations outside of deductability, as I don't like to plan my life around government policies like that. Sure, I usually get a check back from my tax bill accounting for the cash I basically lent the government, but it all goes into a cash hoard and I don't factor it into my expenses and savings goals.

But Fuzzy, do you really not think it's a problem that almost half of the US population is expected to not pay federal taxes? You don't think it's a problem when a majority pays nothing, but can vote for politicians who insist on increasing taxes for those who do?

My complaint isn't that I'm in financial trouble. I'm fine. It's that -- due to a change in when I get paid part of my compensation -- my salary for this year will go up by a few thousand dollars. It's just for this one year and it's just a couple of thousand dollars, but suddenly this pushes me into a higher tax bracket. GGT, you want to talk about middle class squeeze? It's present in those who don't magically double their salaries every year, and instead see their temporary income gains slurped away by government.