Brothers and Sisters, gather round for today’s sermon. The taxt for today is . . . . Well, tempted as I am to write about “taxes are due today” and related matters, I think I won’t. I will NOT go off for 200 words about wasted money, etc. etc. I will NOT talk about how BILLIONS of dollars are being spent to kill Iraqis and Americans even though Iraq had never in its short history ever attacked the United States. Think how much cheaper it is to kill Americans through drunk driving and street violence! Think of the tax money saved if we do it at home.
I will NOt talk about the waste of money in the Social Security Disability and SSI systems. Bleeding-heart liberals talk about how the poor disabled have such a hard time getting benefits, and the system is loaded against them. Right-wingers complain about the cheaters who are getting benefits, and how the disability money just goes to pay for drugs and booze. The truth of the matter is that one-fifth of those receiving benefits are cheats, but on the other hand, the government relies on fraudulent reports and faked evidence to deny benefits to people who should qualify under the law.
Instead, I’m going to try to emulate Greg and make this post light-hearted and humorous.
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Sorry, I just wrote the checks and sent in my returns. I don’t feel very light-hearted.
i think i love you.
You’ve heard Chris Rock’s routine about taxes, no? “The government takes the money out of your paycheck before you even get it?!? That’s not a payment, that’s a jack!!”
Fortunately for me, I guess, I had money coming back to me from both the state and the feds, and so I did my taxes two months ago. Unfortunately, I already spent the money.
Thanks for not mentioning it.
Not to sound like a starry-eyed hippy, but I don’t mind paying taxes because to me it means that I am lucky enough to have earned the money to pay them. Yes, the funds are horribly mismanaged, but that is another fight entirely.
So congratulations, Dr. Howard, Esq. on being successful enough to warrant paying taxes.
Yeah, I probably shouldn’t say too much because I’m kind of a socialist when it comes to taxes.
What do you mean did I give back my fat refund?
Actually, that’s not “another fight entirely” Sorry to be argumentative. Fact 1: nobody pays their taxes voluntarily
Fact 2: if you don’t pay your taxes, the government will use force, if necessary, to collect them. By “force,” I mean arrest and imprisonment if collection methods fail
Fact 3: 10% of the population (the successful, to you) pays 85% of the income tax even though they don’t require 85% of government services
Fact 4: if the money was wisely spent, the government’s need for money would be smaller,
Fact 5: if the government’s need for money were smaller, the “successful” would have less money taken from their pay, and the tax system would be less unjust. When it comes to taxes, “progressive” is unjust, and “regressive” is fair.
After reading this post I’m suffering from a psychological block which is keeping me from doing my taxes. Do you think you could argue that for me?
Matt, don’t apologize for arguing your position. It’s your “soap box” and I am just a heckler. As to fact 1, you’re obviously right that nobody pays taxes voluntarily, and listening to semi-annual NPR fund drives leads me to believe that few people would pay if it were not for fact 2. Of course, NPR doesn’t imprison you for listening without paying. I’ll have to trust you that #3 is a fact as I don’t have the statistics. But I don’t see your point. I donate to charities whose services I don’t use because it benefits the greater good. And I sacrifice things I’d like to have to do so. Just like taxes. Fact 4, not really a fact so much as opinion, I disagree with you about. There is always something to spend money on. If the government managed their funds properly, they could put money into healthcare or schools or a bigger, better armed forces or a giant golden calf or space exploration… you get the idea. Fact 5 I don’t get at all. Are you advocating taxing the poor at a higher rate? What benefit to society is that? I don’t understand.