Income Taxes …
… are my single largest monthly expense. Literally, 1 out 6 working hours are done in order to pay the government.
When are we going to wake up and realize that income taxes don’t just suck, they are a form of modern citizen slavery! But instead of working a plantation at the tip of a whip, we work a blue collar job and are forced to hand over our wages by the threat of prison.
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Isn’t the ’slavery’ moniker perhaps a little extreme? I’m personally in favor of abolishing the income tax in favor of a national sales tax (like a FairTax, with some modifications). But really, whatever sort of tax structure you care to name is fundamentally unfair in a very real sense. Sure, it’s frustrating as hell that money goes right out of my paycheck every two weeks, but hey? Why should I have to pay extra on goods I buy? Why should my (hypothetical) business have to accept lower profit margins to accommodate sales taxes? Or pay taxes on the (again hypothetical) property I legitimately bought?
I don’t want to assume I know your position on any given issue since they seem to be morphing pretty quickly these days (a good thing!), but I’m pretty sure you recognize the necessity of taxes in some form or another. What makes income tax so much more immoral than, say, sales tax?
@George
Extreme? I certainly admit that the word “slavery” tends to bring up images of 1800s white Americans holding African Americans under forced slave labor. Obviously, the income tax isn’t even close to being the same level of horrible as that.
That said, slavery is forced labor for little or no pay. The fact is, a man making $50,000 per year is forced to work for nearly 2 months out of the year with no pay.
On the other hand, a consumption tax, or even corporate taxes, taxes on profits, or taxes on imports, etc., are all much better alternatives to a tax on labor. Property taxes are a great example of a logical tax … you’re taxed on property to pay for the services provided for you by the government related to that property (ie. gas taxes and car taxes pay for road construction, etc.)
However, a consumption tax such as the fair tax is entirely unnecessary considering the shortfall in the budget could be (theoretically) eliminated by spending cuts. But I’d certainly take a consumption tax over a graduated tax on labor.
This is all not even mentioning the constitutional opposition there is to any graduated tax, much less a tax on labor, the shady passage of the 16th amendment, the fact that the 16th amendment does not contain language such as in the 15th amendment (”The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”), or the fact that congress has in fact NEVER passed a law that requires a person to file a 1040 (but that’s another conversation).
Bottom line, taxes in this country are out of control. And I will pay income taxes on a graduated scale until the day I die. I should just get used to it.
Do you mean the current budget shortfall, or the shortfall resulting from the loss of income as taxable funds? Certainly I’d agree about the former, not so sure about the later.
Otherwise, points taken.
@George
“Do you mean the current budget shortfall, or the shortfall resulting from the loss of income as taxable funds?”
Both really. The latter could be accomplished considering we could close many of our foreign military bases, as they are unnecessary and imperialistic (currently we have bases in 130 countries). And I’d also like to see dramatic spending cuts in subsidies and entitlements. Obviously, this wouldn’t be an overnight thing, as we have a responsibility to make good on our word (for instance, we would need to pay social security benefits to those who paid into the system, and eventually phase out mandatory participation). But it would come eventually.
All things considered, it could be done. In fact, we could probably eliminate the federal income tax completely without missing a beat by invoking spending cuts. The federal income tax only accounts for about half of the federal budget. The other half comes from other sources (import/export, corporate, etc.). And the corporate tax revenues would spike as well, considering the money citizens can now keep will be injected back into the economy via consumer spending. Corporate profits would spike, and consequently the taxable corporate income would spike.
I guess maybe I’m just some zealot that still believes that the government that governs best, is the one that governs the least :-) Our government is certainly in no danger of under-governing :-D
So true.
And the unfortunate side effect of mob-rule (aka “democracy”) is that the majority have the “right” to abuse the minorities. When mid to high income earning makes you a minority, and the masses envy your resources, you suddenly become the object of a social reform intended to “properly distribute” your resources.
Wonderful self-government!
@Matthew D.
The great thing about the founders is, they anticipated such “majority tyranny”. They set up Apportioned tax mandates in in the constitution.
Then we passed the 16th amendment and the Revenue Act of 1913. Screw the founders. What did they know anyway.
They were not my founders.
“Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord and not unto men.
No murmuring, especially about money. We have been GIVEN eternal life, the rest is icing. Income tax? If you ever need food guys because of income tax call me, or take a trip and visit our brothers and sisters in Darfur.
In everything give thanks, and never speak as an American. We are bondslaves to the greatest Master in the universe!!
Halleluiah to our Great God!!
@Rick Frueh
With all due respect, I could not possibly disagree with you more. It’s that kind of class envy rhetoric that is causing the steady hikes in tax rates. Some things are worth fighting for, icing or not.
The fact that I’ll never go hungry isn’t an excuse to steal my money. If the government taxes us at 80%, we’d still be better off than the rest of the world. But, we STILL “hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Unless I missed something, the Declaration of Independence is still applicable to Americans today.
As long as I have breath in my lungs, I will fight to restore that ideal. People should be free.