As I work my way up the corporate ladder and make my way into middle classdom (I'm still in the lower end of that spectrum), I come to realize, socialism sucks. I'm not a fan of the welfare state. I was when I was in college, mainly cause of the "free thinking" one does in the college world. A student is filled with a lot of liberal, progressive thinking, which in of itself isn't all bad, but its certainly impractical at times. Its easy for academia to speculate and preach what they think is best for the world, however I find a lot of academia really doesn't seem to have much connection with the world they live in. I found that true at my college and at most universities I see. I found the way I was taught in college: the ideas, theories, and philosophies were really out of touch with reality. And now that I'm in the corporate world I find that I've become increasingly more capitalistic in my thinking. It erks me that I make about $10,000 less than what I'm supposed to due to taxes and social security (also some healthcare expenses which I'm sort of screwed on too, but thats not necessarily the government's fault---though it would help if they passed some sort of medical mal-practice law or something here soon).
This whole blog was born out of reading Bill's article in last week's pulse. I was out of town last week and a friend of mine gave me his copy today from last week. I loved Bill's article because i had heard about Hillary's communistic speech but wondered, "Is the liberal media that loyal that they won't rag on one of their own communistic leaders????" I mean if a Republican calls for less taxes on large companies they get railed as being a friend of the rich... little do they know that if my company pay's less in taxes they may be able to filter that money down to the working stiff like me. And unless you work for enron, tyco, or Screw Its Employees Incorporated that money will be seen by the workers. You may not see the cash, you may just get a dorky mouse pad or a dorky t-shirt but hey, its something. I certainly could put a 10$ t-shirt to better use than the government with my money. If you didn't catch bill's article you should check it out on his blog its pretty good as usual.
Wow. Thanks. I actually got some (awesome!) hate mail over that article. Ever read Thomas Sowell?
Posted by: bill colrus at July 17, 2004 12:24 AM$10,000 is a bit of an exaggeration. If you paid that much in Federal, FICA and Medicare tax then you'd be clearing around $70,000 gross a year...and that's assuming that by your comment you mean that paying $1 in taxes is too much. If you think you should pay some money in taxes (e.g. $3,000 vs. $13,000) then I don't know what you are complaining about by not making enough money at your job.
Personally, I do not mind paying taxes. Someone has to pay for the services that the government provides. What I mind is the system of taxation and the way in which the government spends its revenues. The problem, as I am sure that Bill pointed out, is that 1) taxes are not charged fairly; and 2) the government is involved in legal plunder (i.e., wealth distribution).
I would favor a complete overhaul of the tax system in which a flat tax (with no deductions) is assessed to everyone, regardless of their income level. However, that would only solve part of the problem. The government then needs to abandon its socialist programs and get back to its roots--creating order.
Posted by: Scott at July 17, 2004 11:45 PMI totally agree, Scott, but as an American I reserve the right to complain... and the threat of a democrat president looming I have the feeling I'll be doing a lot of complaining very soon... All I can do is hope and pray the American people aren't as dumb as the Media seems to hope they are.
Posted by: holton at July 18, 2004 12:50 AM