Daily tax rant

Discussion
1

You know what irritates me? The sheer number of bureaucrats that
have their hands in my pockets. If you follow the money that we earn
and subtract from it what we have to pay out to others, it seems we
have little at the end of the day for myself. Much less than half.

Federal, state, "social security", medicare, state sales tax,
inflation tax, various local taxes implied in my monthly housing
rent, various licensing fees, sham penalties and on and on and on.

People who inherit their wealth don't have to be so concerned with
such things - it's mostly property tax and inflation they need to
worry about.

The system is designed to keep up and coming meritocratic high
earners (wealth producers)in their place. High achievers, with
relatively low net worths pay a far higher % of income in taxes than
the truly wealthy do, who have political power to shift the tax
burden to "income".

The tax code is built around political favoritism and various
attempts at social engineering. This makes the code all the more
aggravating--the fact that it represents an attempt on the part of
the government not only to take away my hard earned money but also to
make me behave in ways that the government, based on political
favoritism and social engineering, wants me to behave. I resent this
behavior-modification purpose almost as much as the theft.

The idea that the government should care whether or not I choose to
buy a house, or get married, or have kids, or save money for my kids'
college, or pay to park at work, etc. -- it's none of the
government's business. Just leave me alone. Let me pursue happiness
in the way I see fit -- in a house or apartment, married or single,
with or without kids, etc.

What would the housing industry, and the suburbs and cityscapes, look
like if there had been a flat tax (or no tax) for these past 60 years
and no deduction for mortgage interest and no government backed
mortgages? It would be a different country. Who knows how things
might have developed? We will never really know all of the
consequences of the government's interference.

Of course, it's all due to the busybodies. There seems to be a
mechanism in the human heart driving all of this: the desire to
control others.

Unfortunately, the argument is almost unassailable. Who could be
against making home ownership, or college, or health care, more
affordable? It would be practically un-American to oppose these
things. Both Democrats and most Republicans lap it up.

2

100 years ago I used to be a commercial loan officer at one of our
local banks. Occasionally, while looking over the tax returns of
our "high-net-worth borrowers" (such a contradiction in terms!!) I
would either roll on the floor with laughter or cry; these dudes paid
almost zero in taxes, since as Derek implies, they had no "income."
Meanwhile, the bankers on the "retail" side, dealing with the W-2's
of the middle class were seeing tons sucked up in infinite layers of
tax withholdings. Just a thought: spread the word.

Marcy

--- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.com, "Derek Jensen" <derekj72@...>
wrote:

You know what irritates me? The sheer number of bureaucrats that
have their hands in my pockets. If you follow the money that we

earn

and subtract from it what we have to pay out to others, it seems we
have little at the end of the day for myself. Much less than half.

Federal, state, "social security", medicare, state sales tax,
inflation tax, various local taxes implied in my monthly housing
rent, various licensing fees, sham penalties and on and on and on.

People who inherit their wealth don't have to be so concerned with
such things - it's mostly property tax and inflation they need to
worry about.

The system is designed to keep up and coming meritocratic high
earners (wealth producers)in their place. High achievers, with
relatively low net worths pay a far higher % of income in taxes

than

the truly wealthy do, who have political power to shift the tax
burden to "income".

The tax code is built around political favoritism and various
attempts at social engineering. This makes the code all the more
aggravating--the fact that it represents an attempt on the part of
the government not only to take away my hard earned money but also

to

make me behave in ways that the government, based on political
favoritism and social engineering, wants me to behave. I resent

this

behavior-modification purpose almost as much as the theft.

The idea that the government should care whether or not I choose to
buy a house, or get married, or have kids, or save money for my

kids'

college, or pay to park at work, etc. -- it's none of the
government's business. Just leave me alone. Let me pursue

happiness

in the way I see fit -- in a house or apartment, married or single,
with or without kids, etc.

What would the housing industry, and the suburbs and cityscapes,

look

like if there had been a flat tax (or no tax) for these past 60

years

3

Derek,

  Good points about the system disadvantaging people who earn money relative to those who already have it, and that we will never know how history might have been different with fewer State controls on peoples' lives.

  On your last point, I think it's the *sentiment* for making home ownership, college, health care, etc. more affordable that's practically unassailable. That was Rand's mistake -- she tried to assail the very impulse to help others.

  However the argument that this assistance needs to be rendered by coercive means *can and must* be assailed. It requires keeping our eye on the fundamental point that this state coercion is indefensible, and not letting ourselves get too distracted by the superficial layers of politics piled on top of that reality.

  Meanwhile, I believe we should be mindful of caring about others. When we are perceived as caring about others as much or more than those who wish to use government force to help people, I am confident that our message of cooperation and voluntary community will ultimately prevail over their message of aggression. But when we are perceived as simply wanting to get government's hands out of *our own* pockets, then we are easily demonized as selfish and privileged.

Love & liberty,
        <<< starchild >>>

4

Starchild:

yes, great points. To be clear, I also want the govt out of yours and
everyone else's pockets.