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.

Was it good for you too?

What used to be an important service – the postal service – has now become mostly a nuisance. (Postal employees, you have my sympathy, but…)

We (personally) have to rent a Post Office Box to receive mail. (No, they will not deliver it to our house.) We have to drive to the Post Office to get our mail. We have to spend time going through the mail which is 95% junk. We have to buy garbage bags to put the junk mail in. We either have to drive to a recycling station to drop off the junk mail or pay for garbage disposal. All the while, we get to worry about some dumpster-diver getting our personal information and stealing our identity and screwing up our credit so, oh yea, we have to buy a paper shredder. And/or we can pay someone to supposedly protect our identity. It’s all on us.

Regarding identity theft, whoever thought of using social security numbers as a general I.D. number needs to be publically flogged. That’s the person/department/entity that is responsible for identity theft. Social security numbers should be used strictly for Social Security and tax purposes. They should have no connection with our credit or our insurance or charge card applications, etc.

And why is it that a credit reporting agency has so much power over your financial credibility? Ironically it does not prove your credibility at all because life is not black and white. A credit report does not explain any late payments. The moral high road is not exactly lucrative. Maybe someone had great credit for 20 years and then was involved in a major auto accident and couldn’t work and was buried in medical bills (another screwing, anyone)? Maybe someone lost their job through no fault of their own and had a hard time getting back on their feet thanks to a massively suckitude economy (and who’s responsible for that)? When people are down they just get kicked harder. They’re struggling to make it but are burdened by oppressive interest rates. But the “well qualified buyer” mentioned in television auto ads will be offered 0% financing and could probably pay cash for the car. But, of course, the car companies know that. Why do we, the people, have to monitor our own credit report records? Shouldn’t accuracy be their responsibility? They’re the ones making money gathering information. They should actually check with us when a monstrosity shows up on a credit report BEFORE they publish it not in a little “by the way, there’s a negative entry on your report” notice. Gee thanks.

The credit reporting agencies collectively plus the social security administration plus the IRS should GUARANTEE that our identities are safe. THEY should pay for our protection because THEY are responsible for the very possibility of identity theft. And they should provide each of us with a shredder.

Why do we put up with this? Did we collectively agree to this? I know I didn’t vote for a perpetual screwing.

The Postal Service says that junk mail is its primary source of income. Why is that so precious but our time and income are apparently disposable?

If I went to the post office every day it would take about 25 minutes per day for the round trip plus the sorting time. That’s 130 hours per year mostly wasted out of my life. (I could probably make one trip a month to get the total mail that I actually want.) This doesn’t even include the cost of gas and the bother of disposal. What is my time worth? Apparently it’s worth nothing to them but it’s worth a lot to me. I’ll calculate low: at minimum wage that’s $942.50 per year I should get paid for my time, plus add gas money, plus add garbage bag money because I DON’T WANT TO go to the Post Office for junk mail and sort and dispose of junk mail. Basically I’m serving as a person who cleans the junk out of their box. They owe me part of their profits for participating in their junk mail campaign. If I order something through the mail then I want to receive that mail and of course I pay for shipping. Other than that I don’t want any of it. Nada. Unless I’ve ordered a package, then email me. How many trees are cut for the idiocy of junk mail. Are we really collectively that stupid? Can we do no better than acting like trained mutton?

I’m trying to come up with a way to just not have a mailing address. That should be interesting. Yes… that’s a plan worth pursuing.