Single Guys Paying for Everything

MSNBC ^ | 28 Jan 2003 | Alex Johnson

[Mocha_Man]

To all families of 4 making 40k a year:

From MSNBC "The president called on Congress to make years of projected tax cuts effective immediately, saying that a family of four with an income of $40,000 would see its federal tax bill fall from $1,178 a year to just $45."

Swell, so that means that the costs of running this society are in the hands of the single people? This is typical. I believe we should all share in running this place together, but this seems quite unfair. What logic comes up a plan that penalizes someone who has worked VERY hard their entire life, sacrified family, friends, and in some cases well being?

I didn't get married to the first thing I saw, or take some nothing job below median income and didn't get stuck with 2 kids because of improper family planning. That's my fault? Now I have to pay 12K a year in Federal Taxes while you families of 4 making 40K a year live off my blood, sweat, and tears?

They are YOUR kids, it isn't my fault you have a family. You should pay AT LEAST as much as I do, your kids are draining the economy. Your kids are using the public schools, parks, libraries, etc... that I am paying for. Like I said earlier, I don't mind paying for these things, someone paid for them when I was a kid, but why should I have to pay more than you? YOU are the one with the poorly planned family, not me.

Who in their right mind would have 2 kids if they only make 40K a year? What were you thinking? How are you going to raise them to be productive members of society? How could you clothe them? How can you send them to college? How can you pay for their after school activities? Oh wait I know, you can afford to do these things because you aren't paying your share of federal tax.

[CoolGuyVic]

I have a better idea. Let's do some real spending cuts and give everyone a big tax break. Personally, I'd rather see massive budget cuts than tax cuts.

"Who in their right mind would have 2 kids if they only make 40K a year?"

I'm a single dad with two kids. I earned less than 40K last year, yet I do okay. My "mind" is just fine.

[Djarum]

My "mind" is just fine.

Give it a few years.

[ancient_geezer]

Swell, so that means that the costs of running this society are in the hands of the single people?

You could always work to change the situation. Support a comprehensive single rate single stage tax on retail sales.

John Linder (R Texas) offers a bill to kill all income and payroll taxes outright, providing a proportate tax based on individual expenditure (one's benefit from society instead of arbitrary measures of one's contribution to society) alone:

H.R.2525
SPONSOR: Rep Linder, John (introduced 07/17/2001)
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.
Refer: http://www.fairtax.org & http://www.salestax.org

 

Thomas Hobbes from Leviathan

• It is fairer to tax people on what they extract from the economy, as roughly measured by their consumption, than to tax them on what they produce for the economy, as roughly measured by their income.

[Numbers Guy]

As a single adult, I did have a real problem with the Clinton/Gore approach of "targeted" tax cuts, because they were all targeted toward other people. Bush's approach of across-the-board cuts is far fairer, because it doesn't presume that the government should be in the business of encouraging certain life choices through targeted tax credits. Rather, the Bush approach works from the assumption that taxes are too high for everyone and should be reduced.

[blackdog]

The four kids will be paying your social security when you are retired. As for you as a single guy......You had better pump out a few. The actuarials need bodies in the payroll tax system.

[Numbers Guy]

The four kids will be paying your social security when you are retired.

I'll cut you a deal that will take the burden off those four kids: Let me keep my Social Security tax and invest it on my own and, in exchange, I'll give up any claim to Social Security, so those four kids won't get taxes to pay for my benefits.

[CoolGuyVic]

"Give it a few years."

lol

With two grade school kids, a few years is about right.

[highpockets]

I hope that one day you have the joy of parenthood. Until that moment the thoughts you have shared will seem valid. But when your son or daughter first touches your hand everything you have just said will sound foolish, as they did for me the moment I became a parent.

[blackdog]

Then I guess you don't like the "pay as you go system" the great FDR established? Actually I'm with you. It just seems like this is not the time to pick apart any plan that lowers taxes. Wait a week or two. It falls right into the dems hands.

[WFTR]

I have a better idea. Let's do some real spending cuts and give everyone a big tax break. Personally, I'd rather see massive budget cuts than tax cuts.

I agree with you completely. We need the federal government to stop trying to solve every problem. Spending cuts are good for two reasons. The most obvious one is that when we cut spending, we can afford to pay down the debt and cut taxes even further. The second reason is that the federal government often makes many problems worse by its involvement. We spent 5 trillion dollars on the "War on Poverty" and only made things worse by doing tremendous harm to families from our lower socioeconomic classes. Generally, federal involvement and spending on education has hurt the quality of education that American children receive. We should cut spending, cut federal bureaucracy, cut unneeded departments, cut the debt, and cut taxex by cutting the rate that everyone pays.

Like Mocha Man, I'm tired of being hit with higher taxes because I haven't found a wife or started a family. I shouldn't have to pay for services for everyone else's kids when they aren't making a similar or greater contribution.

WFTR
Bill

[Captiva]

Kids are great! Parenthood is great! Shouldn't entitle you to a tax break though.

[Cicero]

Aside from any personal feelings we have about our families, the country depends on having stable families and children. Many if not most of our problems today stem from broken families, aborted children, and a demographic distribution that is loaded down with older people in need of support and immigrants coming in to fill the vacuum of missing people who were aborted.

Single people should want to live in a healthy, happy, thriving country too, even if they prefer not to have families themselves.

It costs an unbelievable amount to bring up a child, pay college tuition, and prepare him to be a productive citizen. For the past fifty years, our income tax policy has discriminated against married people with children, and we are now paying a high price. Bush is only restoring a degree of fairness to a badly skewed system.

[1stFreedom]

My four kids will pay more taxes than you could ever dream of paying.

Family, not the government, comes first. The govt recognizes this through lower taxes. Families, not single people, are the future of the country. Single people are the now of the country. Both are necessary.

[CoolGuyVic]

"Kids are great! Parenthood is great! Shouldn't entitle you to a tax break though."

I agree.

Unfortunately, all of us pay for things we don't want/use. Get the federal government back to its Constitutionally mandated size and this who argument becomes moot.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It is fairer to tax people on what they extract from the economy, as roughly measured by their consumption

This gets real skewed when you start talking about things that are priced mainly for their artistic or collectors' value, rather than the amount of resources that went into creating them.

[CoolGuyVic]

"and this who argument "

..and this whole argument...

[Blood of Tyrants]

What he should have done is put out a proposal to do away with the income tax an replace it with a national sales tax.

The NST would encourage savings, eliminate the IRS and the tax code, remove the hidden corporate tax (and the cost of compliance) from EVERYTHING that you buy, and encourage a boom economy that makes the late 1990's look like the Great Depression.

[what's up]

A flat tax is the ideal. But do you know how many obstacles there are to getting there? You probably do because you sound like someone who keeps up with the tax debate.

I am for this tax break because those who are the Dems' constituencies will dramatically feel the impact of the cut. Then they may realize the wisdom of tax cuts in general which will change the political atmosphere for the long-term.

One step at a time.

[Diplomat]

They are YOUR kids, it isn't my fault you have a family. You should pay AT LEAST as much as I do, your kids are draining the economy.

Just remember something, It'll be my and CoolGuyVic's kids that pay all your future retirement perks. I hear all your drugs will be free too when you get to become part of the leisure class. At least I thought I heard something to that effect. Of course hearing and getting to concentrate on anything is difficult to do while my spawn are awake.

Heck, with as much work and loss of free time that I have to put in to prepare my two to take over the previous generation's debt and pyramid schemes, it's us working families who feel like we're getting ripped off in this deal. You should thanking us instead of badmouthing us, we're putting in doubletime trying to keep the system going, while you're benifiting now and will be collecting in the future.