Adam Lawson

Income taxes are some old bullshit.

Bendy and I went over our budget again yesterday because her car is acting up and I’ve had about enough of it; I want to get her something new, even though her current car is a 2005 Ford Escape with under 60,000 miles. Nobody can figure out what’s causing it to randomly start sputtering and die when it comes to a stop, not even two different Ford dealerships. This just tells me “don’t buy Ford.” But that’s another post.

Our budget lists a worst case scenario for a lot of monthly expenses. For example, the most we’ve spent buying groceries in a given week is assumed to be what we’ll spend every week. Things are rounded up to the nearest five bucks; ten if it’s a big bill. Looking at it, I think we could take the hit of a car payment for a used car. But one thing that sucks a whole lot?

We’re losing around a third of our income to taxes and social security. A bit more if her state-employee-mandatory-retirement is counted. I consider all of these to be taxes since the programs will all be bankrupt by the time we get to retirement age. We’re not getting that money back; it is thus a tax. (We need a constitutional amendment that states “if you take money from the government, you’re not allowed to vote.” No more people voting themselves more free shit at our expense.)

We don’t make enough money that in any sane world we should be losing this much of our income. If our taxes were half of what they were we could be completely out of debt (cars, mortgage, student loans) within a few years. Pick off one form of debt, focus all payments on another — bam, avalanche effect. But no, the oversized government is getting its grubby hands on our money first. If the Obamatons get their way and healthcare benefits become taxable income, that’ll pretty much break our budget and we’ll have to ditch health insurance.

I work hard, she works hard. I went through college without a whole lot of anything — including driving a 1992 Dodge Dakota (which still runs, thanks Ford) and not having a cell phone until I switched from a two-year to a four-year college that required me to drive an hour one way — and so did she. We worked, took out student loans (which we’re paying back). I drive an hour one-way to work (which is why we bought a Civic). We’re careful with our money, but it’s ridiculous that so much of it is taken before we get it.

I don’t have any problem with tax money that goes to roads, or schools (under some circumstances; I think the system is broken). I don’t have trouble with tax money going to the department of defense, or NASA, or any sort of space exploration or scientific endeavor. But I think we need some reforms in our system that involve people paying for their own shit.

If Bendy had bought this house a year earlier and gotten behind on the payments, maybe someone else would be paying them for us. Then it’d be party time; after taxes the mortgage is our biggest expense. But it should be, because our house is one of our most important expenses.

I know I’m screaming into the storm here, and hardly anyone reads this blog (part of why I ripped the comment code from wordpress? more spam comments than real comments; that, and I don’t feel like moderating them. this is my soapbox anyway), but it pisses me off. So I’ll vent. It’s not like we have a choice in the matter anyway; we’re going to be taxed and people are going to continue to vote themselves part of our paycheck.

As income taxes increase, watch charitable contributions decrease. People in this nation will gladly give others that need it their money, but only when they have it to give.