Getting back to the point of this article, so far no one has provided a justification for why an oil company should be treated like a manufacturing company for tax break purposes.

Other than powerful lobbying, of course.

"Trickle-Down" (AKA "VooDoo") economics:

An American term, for how the rich piss on your head, and tell you it's raining.

Why do you say "beloved"? I never said anything about loving my "rulers."

Too bad most rich people don't employ anyone. Rather, they get a salary (as a CEO, athlete, entertainer, investment banker, etc.).

The % of rich people who actually started their own business and hired a bunch of people is low.

Most get hired to do a specific job, then they last for about 18-36 months before bailing on a golden parachute.

And all the while, they are hiring accountants to figure out ways to lower their effective tax rate to that of a middle-class person (or even lower). Furthermore, many of them hide their investments overseas.

I used to be like you some of you guys.......I worshipped Reagan, thought he was cool, until I realized that the only reason I did so was because I wanted to "align" myself with "clean-cut upper-crust preppies", rather than what I perceived to be "burnouts" (hippie Democrats).

Ever hear of "The Military-Industrial Complex"? That intermingling of corporations and government was around back when Reagan was still hosting a TV show.

Show your work 'slice.

Your thoughts are so erratic it is hard to counter them all.

CEO's don't have employees? Athletes and entertainers have golden parachutes?

Show me a person earning a 7, 8 or 9 figure income and paying a 4.7% effective rate and I'll show you a person the IRS is looking for.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3151

I'm not sure why I need to show my work. I'm "middle class", or maybe "upper middle", and I paid what, 28-29% or whatever the heck my bracket is? I forgot.

I'm not a family, and I didn't have anything worth deducting this year, so my ability to reduce that is practically nill.

Not sure where they're getting 4.7% from.

And do you deny my claim that rich people are more likely to 1) use an accountant, 2) identify & make use of creative deductions, and 3) shelter money overseas?

By the way, yes CEO's have tons of subordinates, but in most cases they already existed before he came onboard.

ONLY if he successfully GROWS the business can he lay claim to helping create jobs.

Yeah, I think the misstep in logic is assuming that if you tax rich folks, you affect jobs. The personal taxation of a CEO isn't likely to affect the number of jobs available in their company. Taxing the company would have a bigger effect. Unless someone can prove a link between high-income income tax and job growth.

It takes about 2 minutes of reading to find that out. It's the effective tax rate, after deductions and credits. BTW, the median income in 2010 according to them is a bit above $76k.

It's one of those ideological assumptions, that's "so obvious" that people who agree with it, will never question it.