Let's talk about taxes!
Why do people want to "stick it to the man"? Because they think they're getting ripped off.
Taxes are ridiculous. Now I honestly don't know much about this. I'm sure that when my employer sells something to a customer, taxes must be paid to government. I'm also sure they get some kind of right-off by saying that x% of this income is going to pay our workers, but I don't know how that works.
Either way, my employer pays taxes on this income. Then they write me a check, and the government gets a slice of that. Then I buy something...I pay sales tax! Then the company I bought something from gives those taxes to the government, plus some more for their profit. Then they cut a check to the employees, and it goes on and on and on. Or maybe I go to a doctor, and then he pays taxes on his income, and again, it goes on...
The amazing thing to me is how many times that money is taxed in so short of a time. And I wish I had numbers here because I'm sure they're mindblowing.
And then they go spend it all in a controversial war. I don't think I want to get on the saturated topic of the war at all on this blog, so I'm just mentioning it this once. The point is that they're now rebuilding Iraq after spending billions to destroy it. What about Detroit, etc.? What about schools?
I read a few days ago that 47% of Detroiters are "functionally illiterate."
It would be nice if we had at least some sort of choice. I went to a private school and my parents' and now my taxes are going towards public schools. I'm not upset about that, but it would be nice if I could say I want all my money going to Detroit schools, rather than going towards extra sports fields, pools, and glass roofs at some new flashy high school.
Taxes are ridiculous. Now I honestly don't know much about this. I'm sure that when my employer sells something to a customer, taxes must be paid to government. I'm also sure they get some kind of right-off by saying that x% of this income is going to pay our workers, but I don't know how that works.
Either way, my employer pays taxes on this income. Then they write me a check, and the government gets a slice of that. Then I buy something...I pay sales tax! Then the company I bought something from gives those taxes to the government, plus some more for their profit. Then they cut a check to the employees, and it goes on and on and on. Or maybe I go to a doctor, and then he pays taxes on his income, and again, it goes on...
The amazing thing to me is how many times that money is taxed in so short of a time. And I wish I had numbers here because I'm sure they're mindblowing.
And then they go spend it all in a controversial war. I don't think I want to get on the saturated topic of the war at all on this blog, so I'm just mentioning it this once. The point is that they're now rebuilding Iraq after spending billions to destroy it. What about Detroit, etc.? What about schools?
I read a few days ago that 47% of Detroiters are "functionally illiterate."
It would be nice if we had at least some sort of choice. I went to a private school and my parents' and now my taxes are going towards public schools. I'm not upset about that, but it would be nice if I could say I want all my money going to Detroit schools, rather than going towards extra sports fields, pools, and glass roofs at some new flashy high school.
posted by shawn @ 9:04 AM
3 Comments:
At 8:28 AM,
Jason Zito said…
i've had theories about new ways of taxation...like we should pay some, because there are benefits to having a government (though i doubt some form of anarchy would be completely wrong). like what if we abolished sales tax, and just had an income tax, but instead of the government just taking it and doing whatever the eff they want with it, we could select certain categories that seemed important to us to fund, maybe be required to select a certain number and participate with a certain percentage of the whole that we are taxed. This would serve two purposes. It would allow us to select what our money does based on causes that we think are important, and it would send a clear message to the government about what the population really wants without voting. like if war-related deptartments stopped making money, it would be a clear signal for the government to stop having immoral wars.
of course, there would be the problem that certain branches would need money and people wouldnt realize it, but this would put the responsibility in that hands of the government to inform and explain the importance of certain measures that they feel they need to take. there could be laws to stop officials from making smear campaigns, and encourage them to inform the public better so that we can make a rational decision about which parts of government to fund.
it would also be nice to see, along with this, partisan politics go away and have people spend on the issues rather than the people. we would be a much more practical nation, i think.
there are probably plenty of holes in my theory, but it sounds kinda nice to me.
goodday.
At 11:06 AM,
Chris Trumble said…
Why dont we have univesal heathcare and world peace while your at it!. hippies...
At 12:24 PM,
Jason Zito said…
yeah, sure, maybe if univesal was even a WORD. NERD.
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