Thursday, December 14, 2006
Response to tax liars
*That* is what people are going to gripe about. A fancy chart doesn't do any good. Hell, I know exactly what you're getting at, but it just doesn't reflect what my monthly pay stub says.
Which is a problem.
If it makes any difference at all, I'm about as liberal and green as you can get, so this isn't a strictly righty-tighty whine. I don't even believe that SS will be around when I'm old enough to collect, so factor that one in.
You don't get back money on your insurance premium until your house burns down-- but you pay the premium, I trust. Social Security has been around longer than many of the companies on the stock exchanges, and has paid on time, year after year, war or peace, flood or fire. You're welcome to your opinion as to whether Social Security will survive. It seems like a remarkably uninformed one to me.
No one likes taxes. The best government is the one that taxes the least... and gets done what its people need and want. People would do a lot better to stop worrying about taxes and start fighting for higher wages.
Throw those in and some taxpayers could be close to paying 50%. But I suspect the people you refer to are expressing an emotional truth that doesn't use math to make the calculation.
So, yes, it's possible to pay half one's income in taxes. It's just not possible to do so if (a) one knows the tax system and avoids certain well-known traps, and (b) if one is really middle class. A lot of people are doing much better than they imagine, but a $250,000 income is not middle class.
The emotional reality is that people know they are working harder and not living any better. The tax system is easy to scapegoat, because no one likes paying taxes. But all we have gotten from the anti-tax movement is huge federal deficits, exploding health care costs, and declining schools.
Time for us all to wise up.
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