Penn & Teller: Bullshit – Season 7 – Ep 76: Taxes

Penn & Teller: Bullshit - Season 7 - Ep 76: Taxes

Penn & Teller attack the tax system of the United States as complex and unfair. They visit the halls of Congress in search of a legislator willing to discuss…
Video Rating: 4 / 5

The classic Schoolhouse Rock song “Tax Man Max.” For more information, go to www.DisneyEducation.com.

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37 comments

  1. about 30% of US taxes are military and about 40% are social welfare. About
    half of the tax rate is giving people free shit, especially people that
    aren’t willing to work themselves. The effect that we can see from
    different laws aren’t necessarily created by the following or enforcement,
    but simply in how people react to them. A federal law mandating the rape of
    all hispanic women at all times isn’t going to end in that happening. Just
    like taxing the rich 99% of their income has no fucking chance of us
    actually maintaining their presence or ability to tax them. 

  2. The progressive tax system exists to make taxes the same for everyone. That
    is, people are supposed to pay, in a progressive tax system, the same
    percentage of their disposable income. A poorer person spends a much higher
    percentage of their income on things they need to survive, and don’t have a
    choice in that. So they are taxed on what they can afford to pay without
    the taxes killing them off essentially. Anyone who has taken any level of
    economics will understand this. If someone has 8% disposable income and you
    tax them at 20% you have ended any chances of them accomplishing anything
    from there on out.

    Do I think the government is too big and there’s too much to tax for?
    Probably. But progressive taxation beats a flat tax any day of the week. 

  3. We had our chance to support Ron Paul and the time is gone. Just think how
    cool it would have been if we had supported him much better. The
    Establishment hated him with a passion.

  4. Why can’t Americans (and yes, this is much more an American thing then it
    is anyone else, even if there are people everywhere that do it) stop
    complaining about the very idea of taxation and act like grown ups in the
    rest of the world and accept that 1) no society can exist without taxation.
    2) flat taxation systems are demonstrably harmful to a much larger part of
    society then it is helpful to.
    3) that a progressive tax system is the only one used in industrialized
    nations for a good reason.
    And 4) Libertarianism is at best an obstructionist ideology that wastes
    time and resources in legislation.

    I know America’s education system is broken, but come on, how does one fail
    to even teach basic economics?

  5. “No taxation without representation” was a bullshit slogan made up much
    later in our history to make the Revolution more understandable for kids
    learning about it in school. The colonists didn’t want representation,
    they were an extremely small portion of the empire & the other parts of
    the Empire (especially the most populated & represented part, the island of
    England itself) benefited from the East India company far more than the
    colonists did. They would have been out voted any time they tried to make
    a move that wouldn’t benefit the other parts of the Empire & their
    objectives differed A LOT from the rest of the Empire.

  6. Humm i wonder what the taxes were during the economic golden age after the
    great depression. It must have been very low……… oh shit

  7. I think the real battle lies in following the constitution.
    Most people don’t know that article 1, section 8 is the absolute limit of
    congress’s authority in the 18 enumerated powers (lay taxes, army, navy,
    coin money, etc)
    How do we know that, well listen to Thomas Jefferson:
    “Our tenet ever was… that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide
    for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically
    enumerated, and that, as it was never meant that they should provide for
    that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not
    have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration
    did not place under their action; consequently, that the specification of
    powers is a limitation of the purposes for which they may raise money.”
    –Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1817. ME 15:133

    CONGRESS MAY SET UP NO DEPARTMENT OTHER THAN WHAT IS ENUMERATED
    IF IT AIN’T ON THE LIST, YOU CAN’T DO IT
    Obamacare- unconstitutional
    Social security- unconstitutional
    Medicare- unconstitutional
    Medicade- unconstitutional
    Federal Reserve- unconstitutional
    etc, etc

  8. 10:18 – That’s really rich coming from two extremely wealthy people. I
    thought Penn used to be poor? Or is he one of those people that think that
    if he can become rich being a performer, that all the poor people are just
    too lazy or not working hard enough? I love Penn and Teller, but their rich
    asshole smugness is blatantly showing in this episode.

  9. 25% sales tax on everything except basic necessities like food, cleaning
    supplies, and personal care items. Any item costing more than $100 gets
    taxed. Or a graduated tax where items get taxed higher if they cost more,
    say $100-$1000-15%,
    $1,001-10,000 20% 10,001 and up 30%. Almost any scheme beats thousands of
    pages of rules that no human could possibly understand.

  10. Ron Paul 2012

  11. come on guys, your libertarianism is showing

  12. Oh Jesus. Grover Norquist.

  13. Wait a sec… at 9:42… is that the charging sound from Megaman X?!

  14. #Disney Educational Productions

  15. makemyreturns.com

    A lovely video by #Disney to explain #Tax to your kids!

  16. If I would have been Disney, I would have omitted this video, since they
    are so good at avoiding paying $315M in taxes. Hypocrites.

  17. I find it funny when he said “and whatever they do” and now years later we
    find out what the did… took away what we thought we would have no matter
    what our privacy the NSA is basically us paying for our privacy to be taken
    away.

  18. Let’s Meet Weird Al And Tax Woman Alex

  19. Kurt Siegenthaler

    this is awesome

  20. HAHA! That’s TAX!! 

  21. Peter Wesley Bastone

    Media Factory Show TV #31- SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK

  22. 1:12 We don’t OWE anything! D:<

  23. Check out this hilarious Schoolhouse Rock video all about taxes! The
    politicians could learn a thing or two. 

  24. Here is some tax info I think we can all understand. Goodmorning my Google+
    friends….. ;-)

  25. Use in the math classroom

  26. For my main man +Mitt Romney and +Paul Ryan to study about their tax plan.
    I think you’ll be surprised in finding that you’re both morons. 

  27. Tax Man Max…

  28. Cook Martin Poulson

    Here’s a classic from Schoolhouse Rock by max the tax man:
    #taxes #finance #education 

  29. It’s Tap.

  30. cartoonkingforeever

    @freesk8 you sir are ignorant, what freedom do you talk of?, elaborate
    please

  31. 17th

  32. what a cool song

  33. well he was correct cause this tax due date was on Sunday he meant.

  34. I agree 100%. Total propaganda. Blatant and obvious.

  35. Five Girls are Rockettes

  36. @cartoonkingforeever Your taxes are now being used to fund the war on
    drugs, which affects poor blacks the most. Your taxes are building bombs
    which we are dropping in Afghanistan and are probably about to drop in
    Syria or Iran. Your tax dollars are being given to big corps, many of whom
    made big campaign contributions. Yeah, that’s what we need. More money in
    the hands of corrupt politicians, so they can give it to the rich who
    support them. Sheesh.

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