[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Payroll tax is just another type of business expense that rolls into the cost of goods sold. It is necessary to price the products to cover all costs plus a margin.

. . . only if the business hires the employee. An employer who only considered the paycheck he would cut for the employee when he hired you would find that hiring you was not nearly as profitable as he expected. I doubt that many employers are that naive. So if the employer has to pay a tax of 7.5% of your salary if he hires you, you are burdened with the need to add 7.5% more value in order to be worth keeping on the payroll.

In reality every tax affects everyone. If I hire someone to do a job, and that person has to pay income tax on what I pay him, what that means to me is that the money I have to offer doesn’t buy as much for the employee as it would without the tax. That’s his problem, but also mine, because my money isn’t worth as much as it otherwise would be.

[greeneyes]

Agreed, but that’s irrelevant to the issue we were discussing-Buffet’s lie about his secretary, where he stated that she pays 15% payroll tax thereby including the employer’s portion as part of her tax in order to make his ridiculous claim.