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This is why the "Tax Freedom Day" approach is more useful. Tax freedom day is of course the day when the average American or Brit or whatever has stopped working for the government and has the rest of his income for himself. For most years, this is estimated to around May-June. That is, for almost half of a year a typical taxpayer is working for the government.
Replace "Government" with "Society" and you're getting somewhere. Where will your brand new sports car go when you don't have a road to drive on? Who will pay the cops when there are no taxes being collected?
Not a perfect measure, as it averages together folks of various tax brackets, including the many in America who pay nothing (but it doesn't assign a negative number to those who receive "net net" money from the government). And it fails to take into account the double taxation which a business owner faces: roughly a 50% tax on his profits, then when the profits are disbursed to the owners of the corporation, another 35-45% tax bite. For a business owner, he is effectively working for the government for the first 70% of every year. Which means only October-December is he working for his own interests.
The business though benefits extremly from the infrastructure that is build with taxes. Plus a lot of companies can exempt even more money, so in essence a lot of companies don't pay a dime in taxes.
Jabber about how poor people are actually receiving fewer tax benefits than rich people misses the point of who's working for whom.
Yes, the poorer are working and contributing to the Riches. Always Remember: YOU stand on the backs of those who you despise so much.
Alice, an engineer or pharmacist or perhaps a small business owner, works between 40% and 70% of her time to pay money into government.
And how much money does she get back by services? Say: Homelandsecurity? Say: Roadconstruction? etc.?
Bob, a crack addict collecting "disability" or welfare or other government freebies, works 0% of his time for the government/society. ("Dat not true. I gots to stands in line to get my check increased!")
Well, why don't you just take him out and shoot him then?
Alice is a source, Bob is a sink. Talk about how Alice gets benefits ignores the fact that she's working for the government for a big chunk of her life. Bob is not. Alice is a slave for the government, and "society," so that Bob can lounge in his mobile home watching ESPN and collecting a monthly check.
And how many Bobs are out there? Also, you forgot Fred. Fred is the guy who works for Alice, supposly only 40 hours a week, but they are short staffed as Alice needs to make sure that her investors get a "good bang for the buck" so Fred has been in reality working more to 70 hours a week and hasn't really seen his kids anymore. He is only paid for 40 hours though as Alice explained to Fred that she just doesn't have the money to pay for overtime. Then Fred gets sick, but Alice didn't provide any benefits (after all she needs to make a profit for the shareholders), thus Fred has to get by what he has saved up while hoping that the government would give him some money.
(I'd like to know why all of the folks here in California who are getting "benefits" and "services" are not at my door on Saturday morning to help me with my yard work. I'd like to know why finding reliable yard workers has become nearly impossible in the past couple of decades. "Will work for food" signs are a fucking joke...try hiring one of those layabouts to actually do some work for food and watch the sneers, or watch them threatening to fake a work injury if a shakedown fee is not given to them. These people should be put in lime pits.)
blah blah blah. The world is so unfair to you. You just can't get a good slave anymore these days for nothing.
When you hear John Young and Tyler Durden nattering about the "persons of privilege" are reaping the rewards of a benificent government, think about Alice and Bob and ask yourself who'se doing the real work. Ask who're the sources and who're the sinks.
Fred is doing the real work, and gets a kick in the butt by Alice the moment he is not "worth" enough anymore. You, of course, still carry the idea that everybody has the right to be rich. That the World doesn't have infinite resources nor that the money is an infinite resources is ignored by the likes of you. After all you have made it on the backs of all the Freds out there. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8.0.3 iQA/AwUBP/VtHGlCnxcrW2uuEQJHawCgpIcaR+lRC2MwqFJzebr+XxEshzMAoKPP yRgG7Q1OLgzfcOzTFHbOqGP6 =HPPh -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----