My Middle Class Perspective on Taxes
I never really minded paying income taxes. Oh sure, like everyone else, I grumble and groan while preparing those damn tax forms, but that’s only because I like to bitch. Since our government is not a business, and must be funded by us in order to operate, taxes are a necessary evil. Sure I wish that our elected officials would spend the money as if it was coming out of their own pockets (or at least their kids’ trust funds) instead of some magic pot at the end of a rainbow, but that’s a topic for another day. Today, it’s paying taxes.
Why does increasing the tax rates on income over $250,000 put so many people in a tizzy? I consider my family to be as middle class as they come. Even when everybody was working, the entire household never made anywhere close to $250,000 in a year, let alone per tax return. It could be my puny middle class perspective, but I think a quarter of a million dollars is a lot of money. It certainly is quite a bit more than what the house I live in is worth. I think it’s probably more than my entire life is worth. So I wonder, what is the big deal?
I don’t understand all the uproar about taxing corporations more either. Back in 1958, corporations were taxed at a rate of somewhere around 52%. Even before Reagan’s 1986 tax reform, corporations were still paying about 46%. Those rates didn’t seem to kill them off or make them leave the country back then, so why does everyone think to raise the corporate rate, even a little bit, will do that now?
Besides, corporations for the most part only pay taxes (at tax rates that are now between 15-35%) on their profits and not every penny they make like we as individuals do. Almost everything needed for a corporation to exist and do business is deductible in some way. I would think that, since nobody likes to pay taxes, a higher tax rate on a corporation would be some incentive for them to spend their money on things that would be tax deductible. Like maybe jobs with decent wages and benefits?
I know I would be happy to pay taxes under the same rules as corporations. I would have no problem paying 38% of my income if the expenses for my housing, transportation, insurance, utilities, maintenance and other things necessary to maintain my life and be a productive American citizen were all tax deductible. I figure 38% of what is left over at the end of the year would basically be around $1.05. Heck, even at 52% I’d still be looking at a tax bill of $1.41. I couldn’t beat that with a stick if I tried.
For some folks there never is enough money.
It was argued that reducing taxes on Corporations would enable them to create more jobs. So the Corporations got tax cuts, and then began closing factories here, and outsourcing the work.
During the Clinton Presidency, Corporate taxes were increased, and employment went up.
During the Bush Regime, Corporate Taxes were cut drastically, and unemployment increased drastically.
We now have a situation where most Corporations are not paying any taxes at all. The richest Corporations in America, like GE, and the Oil Corporations, have paid no taxes in years.
So I’ve developed a Single Tax system on Corporate Profit, and Individual Capital Gains. It would be a one page form, with no loopholes. Under this system, most of the money would be siphoned off the top, and most people, and all those small local businesses wouldn’t be paying hardly any taxes at all. What this would do, is enable people to pay off debt, and actually buy stuff. And the result of that, is that Corporations would do even better than they are now, EXCEPT, that instead of all the money being hoarded at the top, it would be circulating throughout the entire economy… as things do in any healthy organism
http://www.jamesclairlewis.com/pages/politics/singletax.html
Lovely post SPK. How was the rest of your trip to Oz? Great stuff. Funny how so many people complain about being over taxed and then whine about the quality, or rather the lack of quality, in government services. Smacks of selfishness to me. I hearted..