Posted on 09/02/2002 4:22:55 AM PDT by rambo316
Imagine you want to buy a new car. You find the make and model you like. You're pretty certain about the color and the options. You take your choice for a test drive.
Then you get down to haggling over the price.
"Now what about the price?" you ask the salesman.
"Depends," he says. "How much money do you earn?"
"Why is that any of your business?" you respond.
"Because," he says, "the price of the car depends on your salary."
"Why?" you ask incredulously.
"Oh, yeah," he explains. "If you make $100,000 or more, you pay 50 percent more than someone who only earns say $50,000. We're now selling cars the progressive way. We use a graduated cost index – or GCI – to figure out what our customers pay."
I'm sure if this happened to you, you'd be pretty steamed. Imagine if the cost of goods was determined by a sliding scale based on what we earned. It would be outrageous, unthinkable, un-American.
Yet, why is it that we as Americans sit idly by while the federal government uses just such an unfair system of sliding scales to determine what our individual tax burdens are?
Isn't that just what the so-called "progressive" tax system is all about? Isn't that what the graduated income tax is?
In fact, the government's scam is even worse than my hypothetical. We each pay to the federal government according to what we earn. But we don't even necessarily get anything when we pay more. In fact, generally speaking, those who pay nothing or less get more under the Infernal Revenue Disservice plan.
Think about it. My hypothetical example is not so imaginative at all. Have you ever gone to the grocery store and watched the person in line ahead of you present food stamps as payment? In effect, his groceries are cheaper than yours because he earns less. You get to pay for your groceries and his – and you don't have any choice about it, not even about whether he buys groceries that are healthy for him and his family.
This is where we are moving as a country. Until we dismantle, once and for all, the criminal tax code, more of this fraud and thievery will find its way into American life.
Why do we accept such a system as rational?
Why do we accept this as just?
Why do we accept this as legal?
Why do we accept this as moral?
Why do we accept this as inevitable?
Doesn't such a system clearly diminish our hard work? Doesn't it provide disincentives to make more money, to put capital at risk and provide jobs for others? How is any of that beneficial to society?
In other words, we accept irrational actions from the supposedly accountable government that we would never accept from private industry.
In fact, I'm sure there are laws against charging customers different prices for the same product. Yet, the government believes it has the right and the duty to charge us different amounts for goods and services we may or may not want, and to use force if necessary to extract those funds from us.
Why should we be concerned? Why now? Well, it's Labor Day. And I thought I would remind you that you have a business partner you may not know about. Uncle Sam is getting cut in for as much as 50 percent of everything you earn – just like some high-priced Hollywood talent agent.
Americans collectively spend more on government today than they do on food, clothing and shelter combined. Much of that biggest expense in their budget is based on this wacky notion of the sliding scale. You pay one price, your neighbor pays another. And those who pay the most get the least in return.
Workers of the world, wake up!
This places the people who pay taxes at a distinct disadvantage. The Democratic Party can rightly say to those who do not pay taxes, "If you vote with the Republicans, they will cut the taxes for the rich." They never say, "If you vote for the Republicans, the people who pay 98 percent of all taxes will get to keep the money they earned."
We need to focus on two things. First, we need to articulate a message that will give the voters who pay no taxes an understanding that it is the people who pay taxes that create the jobs, not the Democratic Party and that jobs increase when taxes are lowered. Second, we need to articulate to our candidates that this is a serious issue for us.
I agree that as a citizen,resident of this country I should pay taxes to support legitimate government activity. But, I believe the tax schema must be fair. It is for this reason, I believe a VAT or sales tax in most appropriate.
1913 was a very bad year for the Constitution. The Sixteenth Amendment allowed taxes based on income (even though the original document expressly forbids it), and the Seventeenth Amendment made the Senate into just another popularly-elected House.
Nice thoughts, but the leeches don't give two craps what you think and neither do your self serving politicians. Your input is neither needed nor asked for by either group.
What needs to be done is for everyone to quit paying them. We need to tell them to go f*** themselves. No more paying for your stupid grandmother's drugs, for your stupid father's retirement or for your stupid daughter's kids because she can't keep her legs closed.
Talking and reasoning with people who don't give a crap what you think is senseless. It's been tried and failed, time for plan B.
There are two methods for that. Go to Russia (13% flat income tax all around or to pull a John Galt and just work enough to get by.
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