Wonderful economical calculation

Well, I personally pay 15% of my income to tax, which not only benefits the greater community and community services, but is also used to help the unemployed pay for housing, food and to teach them new skills, but also helps pay for people with low income and helps support children and families in need. On top of that I have the option to donate more money to charities as well.

There are no stats, I'm going by what I see. Again, so are you ending poverty for the laborers or the citizens? Because in the UAE & Qatar and even Saudi there's not that many citizens living in poverty, so yes it would work. If you tried it with the labourers you'd have a huge influx of people coming to these places to live off of the free handouts.

And as I said, most people in the west give far far far more then 2.5% in taxes AND charity, yet we still have poverty.

Gypsy, you said: "I can almost 100% guarantee you that most of these Sheikhs already give more then 2.5% of their income to charity every year"

Please prove to me your 100% guarantee with examples.

I know that in KSA, Al-Rajihi is one of the most generous men I have ever come across (I personally met him in 1999). This guy surely gives more than 2.5%. He has actually built neighbourhoods for the poor in Riyadh...

But I know many multi-millionaires don't get to 1% or less...

What I said above applies to eliminating poverty in the countries that apply these regulations, not the entire world... unless the entire world commit themselves to paying those 2.5% every year!

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Obstacles are what you see when you set your eyes off the goal.

Sefri are we talking about 2.5 percent to eliminate poverty in the UAE, or Saudi, or Qatar? (And if so does that apply only to the citizens or to immigrants)? Or are we talking about the world? I can almost 100% guarantee you that most of these Sheikhs already give more then 2.5% of their income to charity every year...and still poverty.

Revires and oceans started with one drop of water and the drops continued the oceans and rivers were created.

Gypsy,

If you take this country as an example, I can tell you that a few Qatari's here make nine to ten digit numbers a year!

The hidden figures nobody knows about may astonish most of us! How do you figure that some teenagers here have a 1.5 million Lamborghini that they crash and replace the very next day?!

In KSA, some cities have more than one Ferrari agent! I can tell you about Jeddah as an example! And they have stock cars that can be bought at the moment... whereas in the rest of the world, no city has that luxury. Not even in Italy itself where they make the cars.

What this indicates is that there is more money floating around than you can ever imagine.

Take another look at Dubai and its Sky Scrapers.

I think if the rest of the world joined economy forces, they wouldn't be able to catch up with Dubai!

In Sheikh Bin Zayed Street you have more than 240 towers built on both sides with more planned for the future!

This is one road...!

And you think 2.5% is next to nothing...

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Obstacles are what you see when you set your eyes off the goal.

You would still have poverty. 2.5% is next to nothing, and it would by no means feed millions, if not billions of people.

Allow me to state the following:

1- Zakat is 2.5% on the crude amount you make per year after deducting out all costs with the condition it reaches the minimum Zakat applicable fee (which is the value of 89 grams of pure gold at the date of issue of Zakat).

2- It is not communism, the income tax that capitalists apply in other countries closer to it, since it is older than the two systems (1430 years old). The more you make, the more you have to help the poor.

3- It should be given to governing authorities and these should distribute it wisely according to their data bases on poor families and their needs. Unfortunately as such a theoretical system does not exist, most people distribute this Zakat as they want.

Generally speaking it is not as simple as it sounds and has many regulations, but if applied on Muslim countries, you are right: we would not have poverty.

When it was well and correctly applied at one point of Islamic history (in the time of Khalifa Omar Bin Abdul Aziz), barrels with money were laid on the streets so that the poor may take what they need. Instead, the barrels grew with more money! It sounds like a fairy tale, but it happened... once in history at least.

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Obstacles are what you see when you set your eyes off the goal.

that's how economies fail, because of wrong statistical data and assumptions.

I will explain it later on

Ah, and as for charity:

http://www.razoo.com/articles/Americans_Give_to_Charity

The average American gives 2.3% of their annual income to charity, on-top of taxes, etc.

The forest manager working in forest inspector do they also pay taxes.

If no i will like to apply for a job as forest inspector there :D

Here's the actual calculation:

Population of the US: 303,824,640

Income range Number of individuals (in thousands)

Under $2,500 - 4.50%

less than $25k- 42.72%

less than $50k- 70.95%

$50k-$100k - 16.94%

$75k-$100k- 4.66%

$100,000 or more- 5.63

And here is a description of the distribution of income tax:

In 2001 the top 1% earned 14.8% of all income and paid 34.4% of federal income taxes. The next 4% earned 12.7% and paid 20.8%. The next 5% earned 10.1% and paid 12.5%. The next 10% earned 14.8% and paid 14.8%, completing the highest quintile, which in total earned 52.4% of all income and paid 82.5% of federal income taxes. The fourth quintile earned 20.7% and paid 14.3%. The third quintile earned 14.2% and paid 5.2%. The second quintile earned 9.2% and paid 0.3%. The lowest quintile earned 4.2% and received a net 2.3% from the federal government in income "credits".

And that's just income tax NOT including social security and other sales taxes. So as you can see, the average American pays A LOT more then 2.5 percent of their annual income. And yet, there is still poverty in the US.

Keep in mind as well that many Americans give to charities above and beyond what they pay in taxes.

the taxes being paid are going to those flood zone which needs it the most and other society needs like education and health. US is not a small country with just few cities or few states.

It is communism, a very basic form. And it doesn't work, as demonstrated by the fall of communism.

Good point Da, in Canada our taxes are much higher then what is required by zakat, and they go into paying for healthcare, education and all the other needs of the country.

Sounds like communism to me.

I just gave an example to simplify the principle, also if Muslim countries performs it correctly there will be zero poverty.

lets say they dont pay Zakat but they do pay taxes.

whats your calculation for that?

But Zakat is only for Muslims so your figures are badly flawed. Please recalculate based on % of Muslims in USA.

Also if you add this, you get 105% :P

Do you understand the concept of a welfare state?