Hermskii wrote: It boils down to this nameless. Our debt is such that right now every single person in America owes about $47,000 just to pay it off. Note however that 47% of America pay nothing in taxes at all. So the remaining folks really have to double up their amount to pay in order to cover for those who don't pay taxes. So everyone here like me who do pay taxes actually owe about $100,00 each.
Then consider all of the entitlements that we pay out to people who should not even be here in the first place. Yes, the Illegal Aliens. They don't pay taxes either but they enjoy every single free thing we give away like school, health care Yes, I said health care. It is against the law for a hospital to refuse service even if they can't pay and they don't. trust me. Even social security is somehow given to these folks though they got here and never worked a day or paid taxes here once in their life. All of this is just a small piece of how we are being owned. Makes me sick and more sick every day. Don't even get me started on the food stamps. I saw a young Mexican lady buy $148.00 in groceries the other day with food stamps. Both her young boys about 5 and 7 in age had on brand new brand name shoes and both were wearing jewelry as well. She was all tattooed up naturally and I'm pretty sure was unmarried.
Well now that the stock market has (hopefully) for the most part recovered from the double whammy of too much posturing in Washington and the debt crisis in Europe, I guess I can comment on what you said a month ago.
First, I am encouraged by this news article:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011 ... ffett.html
The wealthy have indeed been for too long coddled and spoiled and protected from paying their fair share. They dumped their responsibility for taxation onto the middle class, and then promptly went about and destroyed it by shipping all of the good paying jobs south and overseas. I am hopeful that they will follow Mr. Buffet's lead and start paying up. It's absolutely necessary that they do so. It would be nice if they reinvested in America too, and gradually brought back the good jobs. Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone figured out 100 years ago that there is no point in mass production if no one can afford to buy your products. (This was one of the reasons why they flew in the face of conventional wisdom about wage rates and paid their employees more.) But I digress.....
The other side of the coin is a revamp of social programs. It has been commented over the years that US social programs and health care were really just a collection of band aid solutions (food stamps, WIC, etc. medicare, medicaid etc) in place of one overall program or agency. It seems Congress didn't want to face up to the job of creating one social mandate and one agency to administer it. Too bad!
I'll return to the above in a second, but let's also talk about taxing the poor and the illegals first. Actually it's a misconception to say that the illegals don't pay any taxes. There are lots and lots of hidden taxes in every item for sale, and they pay sales taxes on top of that.
One thing that could be done on the Federal level is to replace the federal sales tax with some kind of Value Added Tax. I don't understand myself how a VAT is better than the old FST, but the number crunchers insist it is a better way to collect revenue, and more fair to the poor. The main problem is getting the new way started, for there is always a lot of squawking by "Tea Party" types until you finally pound it into their heads that it is a better way. ( I say give THEM the job of drafting the legislation by a set date, because that way they can't complain about it, and it will be something even they can live with
)
Up here in Canada, we replaced the FST with a VAT we call the
G.S.T. The GST taxes many things that weren't taxed Federally before, (such as labour on car repairs) and increased revenue. To make the tax fairer to those with lower incomes, a rebate system was set up based on income. So four times a year due to my low income I get nearly $100 direct deposited to my bank account. The province that I live in has recently reformed the way its
P.S.T. is refunded, so four times a year I get $60. (In different months thankfully, so it's spread around a bit.) I used to get my PST rebate once a year on my income tax refund. In order to get these rebates
I must file an income tax return every year, and tick the box on the form to apply for the rebates. It doesn't matter if you have no income, you file your particulars, and apply for the rebates at the same time.
So here's the thing: Make a similar tax scheme down your way, and make it necessary for everyone who wants tax rebates, food stamps, health care, welfare, and etc etc file a tax return first. No proof you filed, no goodies for you.
So if you get that tax reform thing done, there will be more revenue. And if you can create the one agency to dole out the goodies, you'll have a better idea of who really deserves them, and save money by bringing under one roof all of the present mish mash of agencies who are soaking up too much money in too much bureaucracy.
One really wants to see the USA do well, because the alternative of self destruction, which seemed so close to reality just a couple of weeks ago, is unthinkable and would possibly drag the world down into chaos. We've all seen the trouble brewing under the surface break out in the UK in recent days. It's not all confined to just the Arab world.
