Taxes, taxes

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Food for thought. When I mention that Sweden has a very high personal income tax rate, the nationalistic American response is, “Ha! In America, it’s the land of opportunity. Low taxes, capitalism, and opportunity for everyone!” (chances are, if you read this blog, you’re not the typical American, so I’m not counting your responses in this)

I just got my pay stub for this month. Out of every dollar earned, I pay 43 cents to Uncle Sam in the form of Federal and state taxes, Medicare, and Social Security. That gives me 57 cents on the dollar to spend. Then add in

property tax
sales tax
meal tax
utility tax for electricity
home energy tax for heating and cooking
water tax (they call it a fee for service, but face it, it’s a tax)
sewage tax
telephone tax
911 mobile tax
excise tax on the car I drive
gasoline tax for the gas I put in the car…

… and I figure that I get to *use* about 14 cents on the dollar on a good day. I’m grateful to my fantastic employer, the Student Loan Network, for providing 100% healthcare coverage, or I’d be dropping another $300 -$ 600 per month for healthcare.

How, exactly, is this low taxation?

As for opportunities, several people made the statement that America is still the best place for opportunities, to which I’d say in the 20th century, that may well have been true, but with Internet connectivity approaching near ubiquity in some countries (Europe’s 3G network puts the US to shame, and South Korea’s gigabit to the house is just frighteningly fast) opportunities are increasingly portable. In order to maintain its competitiveness in the 21st century, America has a lot of work to do to reduce government waste and invest in its citizens as other countries are doing.

Food for thought: $447 billion spent so far in Iraq. Regardless of your politics, that would pay for every college student in America to go to a four year public university for free for all four years. It’s not that we don’t have the resources in America – it’s just that we lack the will to do what is necessary to ensure our continued prosperity and to hold those we elect to office accountable for their choices.

Comments

16 responses to “Taxes, taxes”

July 30, 2007

Justin Kownacki

Agreed.

I think the decade of 2000-2010 may be remembered as the time America stopped complaining about major corporations outsourcing American jobs to foreign workers and started looking for foreign corporations to hire American workers so as to provide health and education benefits.

The playing field of work, politics and “entitlement” is changing, and individuals need to be smart enough to look out for their own best interests — especially when their governments aren’t doing it for them.

PS What do you think the odds are of Americans insisting on something revolutionary (like health care, education and workplace benefits akin to other first-world nations) ? I wouldn’t bet on it. We’re too complacent and not willing to do the work it takes to effect change.

Reply
July 30, 2007

Justin Kownacki

Agreed.

I think the decade of 2000-2010 may be remembered as the time America stopped complaining about major corporations outsourcing American jobs to foreign workers and started looking for foreign corporations to hire American workers so as to provide health and education benefits.

The playing field of work, politics and “entitlement” is changing, and individuals need to be smart enough to look out for their own best interests — especially when their governments aren’t doing it for them.

PS What do you think the odds are of Americans insisting on something revolutionary (like health care, education and workplace benefits akin to other first-world nations) ? I wouldn’t bet on it. We’re too complacent and not willing to do the work it takes to effect change.

Reply
July 30, 2007

Phillip (aka PhillyMac)

Uh, I’m paying 35%-ish to the Feds (Uncle Sam), the state, etc. As for all the other taxes – dude, they have them in Sweden too. Just with differnent names.

As for opportunity – yes, someone can start up in their apartment pretty easily – but when you look at the hiring AND firing laws, what the business has to pay for the employees and the like, it’s not easy to build a business.

I can’t agree with you more regarding government waste. So let’s get rid of all the dead-beats in office. The problem is, and the reason we won’t send all those kids to a four year college for free, is that we DON’T. And in MA, we continue to vote for two senetors that specialize in passing pork – then bringing it back home. For some reason people thing that if we get federal dollars for something it’s “free”. HA! It cost more because of the inefficienty and the interest on the debt that the Feds have to pay! But most of the US populace that has been rasied to think that the government is their parent and suckling on the government teat – can’t imagine that they’re just not entitled to all the government programs! Lord help us.

Reply
July 30, 2007

Chris Future

Chris, I think your math is off somewhere. Coming from Canada, yet another land of high taxes, I have tons more disposable income here than I ever had in Canada. My income tax rate halved when I crossed the border. I needed two incomes to survive there, here I can actually LIVE, and own a home, yes, even in the Bay Area, on one income. When you factor in all the taxes and taxes upon taxes, you are much much better off here than anywhere else.

I agree with you on govt waste wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, once Hillary wins, I don’t see the cash coming back to us – I just see it going into social programs for those less fortunate than us. BTW, those less fortunate will probably never be us.

Nothing is free, my friend.

Reply
July 30, 2007

Whitney

The secret here is that until you reach a certain income level, our economy is designed to keep people in the lower to middle classes. (Just think about the huge bounced check fees banks collect, and you figure out how they kick someone while they’re down.) However, once you have financial capital, and are deemed a good credit risk, things like bounced check fees become a thing of the past, just when you could afford it.

Does this system really teach financial responsibility, or does it merely keep people in their economic place?

Add in that every hike in gas prices disproportionately affects people in lower income brackets than higher, and you soon come to the conclusion that our capitalist system has inequitable rewards and punishments that can hollow out one’s hope for the American Dream.

The digital divide and adequate access to information will play out similarly. Those that have it will know what’s going on; those that don’t will remain largely ignorant and potentially victimized by those that do.

Reply
July 30, 2007

P. Dilly

Wow $300 to$ 600 for insurance sounds nice. Try $1400 per month for my family, and we can’t switch because my wife had cancer 3 years ago.

Reply
July 30, 2007

Chris Brogan…

If I off myself and don’t leave a note… but then, if I were richer, there’d be a death tax, too?

Reply
July 30, 2007

phillymac

Uh, I’m paying 35%-ish to the Feds (Uncle Sam), the state, etc. As for all the other taxes – dude, they have them in Sweden too. Just with differnent names.

As for opportunity – yes, someone can start up in their apartment pretty easily – but when you look at the hiring AND firing laws, what the business has to pay for the employees and the like, it’s not easy to build a business.

I can’t agree with you more regarding government waste. So let’s get rid of all the dead-beats in office. The problem is, and the reason we won’t send all those kids to a four year college for free, is that we DON’T. And in MA, we continue to vote for two senetors that specialize in passing pork – then bringing it back home. For some reason people thing that if we get federal dollars for something it’s “free”. HA! It cost more because of the inefficienty and the interest on the debt that the Feds have to pay! But most of the US populace that has been rasied to think that the government is their parent and suckling on the government teat – can’t imagine that they’re just not entitled to all the government programs! Lord help us.

Reply
July 30, 2007

thinkfuture

Chris, I think your math is off somewhere. Coming from Canada, yet another land of high taxes, I have tons more disposable income here than I ever had in Canada. My income tax rate halved when I crossed the border. I needed two incomes to survive there, here I can actually LIVE, and own a home, yes, even in the Bay Area, on one income. When you factor in all the taxes and taxes upon taxes, you are much much better off here than anywhere else.

I agree with you on govt waste wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, once Hillary wins, I don’t see the cash coming back to us – I just see it going into social programs for those less fortunate than us. BTW, those less fortunate will probably never be us.

Nothing is free, my friend.

Reply
July 30, 2007

Whitney

The secret here is that until you reach a certain income level, our economy is designed to keep people in the lower to middle classes. (Just think about the huge bounced check fees banks collect, and you figure out how they kick someone while they’re down.) However, once you have financial capital, and are deemed a good credit risk, things like bounced check fees become a thing of the past, just when you could afford it.

Does this system really teach financial responsibility, or does it merely keep people in their economic place?

Add in that every hike in gas prices disproportionately affects people in lower income brackets than higher, and you soon come to the conclusion that our capitalist system has inequitable rewards and punishments that can hollow out one’s hope for the American Dream.

The digital divide and adequate access to information will play out similarly. Those that have it will know what’s going on; those that don’t will remain largely ignorant and potentially victimized by those that do.

Reply
July 30, 2007

P. Dilly

Wow $300 to$ 600 for insurance sounds nice. Try $1400 per month for my family, and we can’t switch because my wife had cancer 3 years ago.

Reply
July 31, 2007

Christopher S. Penn

Thanks all.

@PhillyMac: now the question is – did the system develop because of the dependency mindset, or is the dependency mindset created because the system is structured to encourage it?

@Whitney: I’ll play devil’s advocate here – isn’t capitalism by design supposed to create a few big winners and a whole bunch of losers? Socialism/communism is designed to create equal result from disparate opportunity (in theory) whereas capitalism is designed to create disparate result from equal opportunity?

Reply
July 30, 2007

Chris Brogan…

If I off myself and don’t leave a note… but then, if I were richer, there’d be a death tax, too?

Reply
July 31, 2007

Christopher S. Penn

Thanks all.

@PhillyMac: now the question is – did the system develop because of the dependency mindset, or is the dependency mindset created because the system is structured to encourage it?

@Whitney: I’ll play devil’s advocate here – isn’t capitalism by design supposed to create a few big winners and a whole bunch of losers? Socialism/communism is designed to create equal result from disparate opportunity (in theory) whereas capitalism is designed to create disparate result from equal opportunity?

Reply
August 1, 2007

eaon pritchard

In the uk, we now pay more tax than ever before yet the public funded services like schools, nhs etc are underfunded and former public services such as rail, power (gas, electric) and social housing and god know what else have all been sold off to the private sector and state pensions look to be the next to go.
We’re following the US lead on this – I wonder where the revenue actually ends up.

Reply
August 1, 2007

eaon pritchard

In the uk, we now pay more tax than ever before yet the public funded services like schools, nhs etc are underfunded and former public services such as rail, power (gas, electric) and social housing and god know what else have all been sold off to the private sector and state pensions look to be the next to go.
We’re following the US lead on this – I wonder where the revenue actually ends up.

Reply