OT: Taxes ** Question for Butch

[Guest guest]

Hey Sharon,

 

> Butch can I ask one question???????????? If we do not pay taxes, how do the

> people in the government get paid wages????? I do not know the answer, but I

> do read emailss that seem to indicate somehow It would be great not to pay

> them, and I do agree with that. sharon

 

Not sure why this came up .. maybe from the tongue-in-cheek posting I

made entitled " Wise Words " .. which were, of course, out of context and

in some cases very appropriate for the times and conditions.

 

But .. back to the question at hand. If somebody does not pay taxes

then the government cannot pay its employees .. that's a matter of fact

because except for taxes governments have no other way to generate cash.

But that does not mean only Income Taxes.

 

There were times in the past where even the US Government was able to

function without Income Taxes .. though they did collect other forms of

taxes .. at least from those who didn't have the connections to avoid

paying taxes http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005921.html

 

And here you see that we have only paid income taxes for around 90 years

http://www.taxhistory.org/default.htm

 

The answer is .. that as government has grown the demands made by the

government coffers has grown .. the only way a government can collect

cash besides taxing its own citizens is through revenue gained from

imports and tourism .. exports keep us employed and its good for the GNP

but its just another way of taxing US citizens.

 

Today, American taxes are extremely low .. nope .. I'm not crazy. Our

taxes are amongst the lowest of all the civilized nations .. and far,

far lower than any of the European countries .. in those countries where

Social Democracy is the order of the day the government takes and then

gives back as it sees fit .. granted, there is womb to tomb protection

to some degree .. but O'Rourke was correct when he said ..

 

" If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what

it costs when it's free. " -- P.J. O'Rourke

 

I know folks in England who are on a 6 month waiting list for things

like CatScans or root canals .. they go to the doctor and s/he treats

them like a schoolmarm treats students. But there is a good amount of

equality in this .. as stated Voltaire and later, Churchill and Shaw.

 

" In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money

as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. "

-- Voltaire (1764)

 

" The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the

blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of

misery. " -- Winston Churchill

 

" A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the

support of Paul. " -- George Bernard Shaw

 

I think the issue is .. do we get our money's worth? If we do then the

taxes paid are worth the sacrifice .. and in the case of the USA .. be I

liberal or conservative or extremist of either kind I think we can say

that we do get our money's worth. Is it all money well spent? No way!

Pork barrel projects are the name of the game but nobody is willing to

give up their share of the pie .. neither people nor parties are going

to sacrifice for such ideals as nationalism or patriotism unless we are

in harm's way .. having an outside enemy.

 

As one who lived on tax-payer's money for 30 years, while in uniform,

then drew a salary from a government contractor paid by tax money for

another five years, then ran a company for another government contract

for another five years .. I can say that taxes are good and I was happy

to be employed. ;-) But I can damn sure guarantee everyone that the

tax-payer got their value back from my services because I never worked

less than a 60 hour week and 75 was more of the norm. I understand that

this is not the norm for all folks paid by tax money but the problems of

correcting the situation is that we have to depend on those inspectors

who are paid by tax payer's money.

 

Do we need less government? I'm sure there are lots of areas where some

trimming is in order .. some other areas probably need a boost. It is

proven that the average IRS investigator returns something like 30 X

his/her salary to the government coffers .. but political ramifications

of increased tax surveillance and enforcement are harsh and few parties

are willing to bite the bullet for the sake of the nation .. and this is

the case all the way through the system.

 

To close out .. I agree with you that it would be nice to not pay taxes

if the trade-off was not too great. There are probably folks on this

list who have training in economics who could better deal with this ..

but my logic and experience forces me to believe that we are far better

off than the other civilized nations .. and even moreso than those who

keep their citizens like members of the family .. Saudi Arabia and such.

And I think there will never become a time where Americans will not

pay tax on their income .. if such a time comes then we are gonna be in

deep kimchi .. methinks. :-P Butch