View Single Post
Old 11-04-2008, 12:29 AM   #42 (permalink)
pan6467
Lennonite Priest
 
pan6467's Avatar
 
Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA
Quote:
Originally Posted by flstf View Post
I believe that the poor and middle class pay a higher percentage of their income to support our government because most of the taxes in the distribution chain are added to the price of goods and services on which they spend almost all their income.
I agree wholeheartedly with you, friend.

I'm VERY tired of the argument that the top 1 or 5% {depending on the data} pay so much in taxes.

I am taxed on my income, I am taxed on Social Security, I am taxed by state, city, county and then my employer matches those taxes. The fact that my employer matches those taxes affects what he pays me.

Then I am taxed on everything I buy except food in Ohio. Then I am taxed for owning property.... if I rent I pay the owner's property taxes in my rent.

I am taxed in 100's of hidden taxes in everything I buy.

I made 20,005.95, BEFORE taxes, working full time, 40 hours a week. We'll just say I made 20000, for easier math. Feel free to add 5.95 to everything if you so desire.

Now, income taxes for the US were.... 1001..... you take 20000 and subtract 1001 I made 18999. Then we take off the 322 I paid the state. down to 18677.

Each of those were AFTER I filed my taxes.... I got a refund from both but those went to pay bills that I couldn't pay because the excess that was refunded was taken out every paycheck.

Now, we take out the 1240 I paid for Social Security..... taking my net down to 17437.

Now, we take out city taxes of 450..... down to 16987 {I was supposed to get a refund of 50 back but.... somehow never did.

Medicare rears it's ugly head in with a 290 cut.... taking my pay down to 16697.

So with 16697, I made 321.10 a week.

Out of that I put roughly 20 gallons of gas in my car. Now the sign on the pump says I pay 44 cents in taxes for each gallon...... that's 457.60 in taxes for gas I paid last year roughly. Taking "untaxed" monies to 16239 and change.

I smoked roughly a pack a day..... sales tax alone was roughly 24 cents per pack {.06%}..... that's another 87 + change.... bringing "untaxed" monies to
16152.

According to this site State Tax Rates on Cigarettes, I paid roughly 1.25 in "excise taxes" per pack to the state. That's another 456 and change taking my "untaxed" monies to 15696.

So, just that so far..... is 20000 - 15696 = 4304 paid in taxes.

I paid 21.52% of my wages into taxes. 15696/52 = 301 and change per week is what my true take home was.

Now, we won't look at the sales taxes and hidden taxes on: the tires, the oil changes, the clothes, the times LS and I were lucky enough to go out to eat or see a movie. Or the property taxes, utility taxes, the taxes on the licenses for our cars and so on.

Nor will we include child support {25% of which goes to the state as a "service/collection fee" and I'm up to date there is no "back support" they are trying to get or charge me for.

So you fucking tell me, how someone who makes what I make or LS who makes roughly 10,000 more but pays more can live on that.

We are lucky to not have any kids here. That it is just us. We aren't starving and we aren't doing badly..... so long as gas stays down and we keep our jobs.

Now, if I made say 250000 and I paid 1/2 in taxes.... I could live a lot better and have money to save. But with kids ad living in a better area.... that maybe the equivalent to what LS and I make.

Now, if I make a million... and give 1/2 {and we won't talk about the loopholes I can find so it's not truly 1/2}.... at 500,000 even with kids we're living a great fucking life.

So don't play that fucking game that the top 1-5% pay so much more.... it's because they have fucking more.... and that's fine, but as you make more so shall you pay. I seriously doubt when all is said and done all the loopholes taken, all the deductions and so on made, that 1-5% pays much more of a percentage of their true income than I do.

You want to trade me tax rates..... trade me paychecks, I'll gladly give 1/2 to the government and not look for a loophole, if it means I can not have to worry about money.

OOOO and I love the argument "live within your means"...... we do and we still are living tight. Meanwhile, what exactly does that 1-5% give up to have to live within their means? I can guarantee it's far less than what we have to.
__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

Last edited by pan6467; 11-04-2008 at 12:35 AM..
pan6467 is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360