Income Taxes, waste, and a call for common sense

It’s obvious that taxing something dissuades that action. Soooo… only a country run by idiots would have an income tax. Really, ‘let’s tax people for working.’ What would be the logical outcome of that brilliant decision?

As the story goes, when income tax in the U.S. began it was to only apply to the rich. (Congress has its right to tax from Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. However, what we consider income tax didn't really arrive until the 16th Ammendment in 1913. At that time less than 1% of people paid federal income tax. Using today’s dollars a couple would have to earn over $348,000 to be taxed just 1%. That's more like it.) That’s why people agreed to it – it was the “other” guy. The rich guy. It was a slippery slope. Golden Rule trampled underfoot. That will come back and bite you in the ass every time. Oh look. What do we have here in 2009? A big collective screwing.

The mega wealthy can get around income tax problems because they basically set their own tax on us: Everyone needs gas. They sell gas. Almost everyone thinks they need drugs. (Legal or illegal are just two sides of the same coin.) They sell drugs. Everyone needs a place to live. They rent out their buildings or profit from mortgages or other over-the-top real estate transactions. Every computer needs an operating system. They sell operating systems. They make far more income from “Joe Lunchbox” just living his life than they pay in taxes.

Those who live in poverty are trapped by their own poverty. The gap between getting help and being self-sufficient is too large. They have to fit in the “charts” to get help. Grow slightly outside of that bracket and you lose – possibly more than you can afford to lose. I know someone who struggles financially and his income sets him about $300 per year outside the bracket for a Habitat for Humanity house. $300 vs. a house.

Then, there’s everyone else – a dwindling pond if ever there was one. These are the people carrying the tax burden. Many pay enough in taxes that it drains their quality of life. Some can’t afford a house, a much-needed and deserved vacation or better food or clothes from somewhere other than Goodwill and Wal-Mart but they’ll pay hundreds of dollars per month in taxes. You know how it is. Have you ever gotten a raise and didn’t even feel it because of taxes? It’s a drain on businesses too. Often, the tax burden dissuades companies from hiring. Been there, done that. Sometimes small businesses really need help but they simply can’t afford the expenses above a decent salary.

And WTF are they doing with all that money? (Besides selling our souls to China. Did you agree to that? Did you sign the papers?) I’ll bet your average housewife could take a red marker to the Federal Budget and take care of business. One week of work and she’ll have that budget balanced, baby. Because that’s what she does everyday: work miracles with too little money. Of course that means only the priorities will be left. What do we really need the Federal government to do? We need defense, we need interstate highways/railways/air traffic, we need immigration control, we need environmental laws, we need a common legal tender (backed by precious metals) … that’s about it. We should disband the IRS, the FDA, the Dept. of Education (there’s a misnomer), and on and on and on. We don’t need them. They can’t even give a person a straight answer to a simple question. We can’t afford them especially with their addiction to waste. Anyone who’s every worked around a government-run operation has seen the waste.

Just one microscopic example of waste: I email a Senator about a concern. He sends me two emails in response. One that takes 300 words to say thank you for emailing and another that takes 600 words to give me a canned response that doesn’t address what I frickin’ wrote about in the first place. THEN I receive a letter in the mail that says basically, again, thank you. Did that benefit anyone or anything? No. OK. Let’s say a senator receives 1000 contacts per day. That’s $440 in stamps per day to respond via mail. That’s over $100,000 per year in wasted postage for one senator. One. I would love to have that income. I deserve it just for stating the obvious. I’d even share it with the next person who called a spade a spade (and the guy down the road that’s $300 too “rich” to get a Habitat for Humanity house.) And, of course, many Senators receive more contacts that that. I was being conservative. Then there’s the congressmen and every other Tom, Dick and Harry in a government office that thinks they need to mail a letter in response to an email because it’s protocol or whatever. Get with the 21st Century program.

State governments are just as guilty of waste. Have you ever filed for unemployment benefits? I don’t know about your state but in mine while the process is being set up you may get, literally, seven envelopes from THE SAME OFFICE in one day and more the next day. Sometimes they’ll send out 15 envelopes from the same office usually containing one piece of paper each. I’d fire them on sight because that level of stupidity doesn’t even deserve a conversation. Protocol. Reminds me of proctologist. Get your head out of your ass.

Anyway, you can magnify that “small” amount of postage waste to get a picture that makes you want to vomit. They don’t care because you and I are paying for it. And when we can’t afford it they sell us to China. I think every year that the budget is not balanced every single politician should be “fired” in the elections. Change them like underwear until they get it right. It’s simple math, people. And why do they get $170,000 per year income to sell us out? Mr. Senator: no balanced budget = no six-figure income for you. Maybe they should be paid a salary that's $300 more than the upper limit for a Habitat for Humanity House which is actually somewhere just below the average income in the U.S. If they (financially) live where we live maybe they’ll get it.

Taxes should come from sales (but not food). The government wants money? Earn it. Encourage business. When people have more money they spend more money. They are often more generous, too. When they spend more money a government that makes its money from encouraging business will receive more money. It’s like planting a garden. The more you sow and care for your garden the more you reap. Taxing income is like eating your seeds.

A government of the people, for the people and by the people must be, by its very definition, common sense. We need a party of common sense. I guess we’re too distracted with our noses to the grindstone building the great Wal-Mart of China.