Forum Post: What about Charity at Home?
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 9, 2011, 4:55 p.m. EST by Frank
(19)
from Washington, DC
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The unseen effects of ever higher taxes to support explosive government spending is rarely discussed. Many people even in the middle class now pay more than 50% of their wealth in taxes (income, real estate, sales, fees, licenses, etc.). At what point are you no longer working for yourself but for others and where does slavery come in? After all some slaves were allowed to keep a small plot of land for their basic needs right?
What I want to say is the following:
I would like to give more to charity but I pay so much in taxes that I can no longer afford to do so. My real estate tax more than doubled when home values soared. Ok, fine. But when the housing market crashed and I lost a fortune what did our local government do? They kept the taxes at the highest level! Is this fair? Hardly so, and it makes a mockery of the concept of taxes based on valuation.
I can't give my kids a better education, I can't afford supporting local charities and I have to work a lot longer than I thought before I can retire. Taxes are crushing me, I'm handing out so much money that I can't meet my own needs. The sad part is that with my modest salary I could have a decent life (food, shelter and 1 or 2 vacations a year and not working until I'm ready to die) yet so little stays in my pocket that I have to struggle every day.
Is this the America we want? Sure, harp on about the rich but they don't have the money to bail out the public debt and furthermore taking from the producers only hurts us. I'd lose my job if the investors behind my company bailed out and this job is the only line between surviving and being homeless.
I hear ya. My taxes are quite high too. I don't mind helping out human beings, but this corporate welfare thing is sucking us all dry!
Lazy a** leeches they are... the whole lot of em!!!
Welfare in all forms, whether it be corporate or individual does more damage than good because it creates special interest groups.
Another unseen effect of forced charity is the loss of "welfare" at home. Ever lived in countries like Sweden? The elderly are considered a burden, older people are asked to move out of the way so the young can have jobs. The state provides so much that parents now tire of taking care of their own kids. I was shocked to see a cafe full of adults and baby carriages outside with the babies still in them.
I agree 100%, no corporate bailouts. However look what happened. Both Republicans and Democrats supported huge bailouts.
I'm not referring to TARP only. We've had 30+ years of corporate privatization, deregulation and tax-breaks for these corporate leeches. Our sacrifices to them were supposed to pay off for the rest of us eventually, according to RayGun. The "health" and "wealth" of these corporations were supposed to "trickle" down to us. Not only did that fail to happen, but their unbridled greed was at the expense of the global economy. And if that was not bad enough... TARP.
I'm sick of it. If they are going to continue to keep their privatized perks and gains when things are going well, (at our expense-someone has to offset the loss of their portion of taxes), then they shouldn't have their hands out when they suffer losses during a downturn. So far their motto has been private profits, socialized loss. Greedy f'rs!!!
As far as Sweden goes, I would love to live there. I've read some wonderful things about the place. :-)
I'm not being facetious, move to Sweden. Then write a journal honestly about your experiences there, I'd be your first customer. If it turns out to be a heaven on earth, I'll follow you there.
I'm against socialized loss, we agree there. Less regulations over the past 30 years? I beg to differ, I work in the private sector and can show you that it has massively increased. One report I file has gone from about 10 pages to over 100 and takes a team of people to compile.