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Posted: 2:21 am
October 29th, 2008 		Post a comment
IT Business

How is it that certain catchphrases resonate so well with truly ignorant and clueless people? How is it that the stupidity is so powerful that it actually moves them to vote against their best interests? In Florida we now have “Joe the Plumber” commercials, where series of people try to show profound ignorance and lack of understanding of how the tax system works, the punchline being:

“I’m supposed to work harder just to pay more taxes?“

Yes, you dumb sack of shit, and that’s not called socialism, that is called capitalism.

The harder you work the more money you make and the more taxes you pay.

This is not a really new concept either, it’s been around since 1862, and started as a way to pay for the Civil War. Ever since then we’ve had a tax system (which actually started as a progressive tax system to begin with, charging 3% on the low end and 5% if you made more than 10K a year) under which you pay more taxes the more money you make.

This is the very foundation of capitalism — that greed is good part of Gordon Gecko’s speech. The harder you work the more money you make the more money you contribute to your community and your country and the more of it goes to eliminate poverty, educate the population, feed the hungry, build the roads, build schools, elevate the income and prosperity which feeds back to the prosperity of the entire country and with more expendable income go to exponentially benefit the richest and the hardest working among us.

Somehow this foundation of the federal government in a capitalist society seems to have gotten the “socialist” label over the past year or so. Spreading the wealth is such a mythical concept to the very same people that drive around on the public roads, send kids to public schools, collect social security, veterans benefits, apply for small business loans and try to build a business on top of the very same beneficiaries of all of the above.

I have a plea for Joe the Plumber and The Angry Villager Band – please quit your jobs and go work for McDonalds. You will make less than $15,000 a year, qualify for some government assistance and be able to pay less than 10% tax. Hard work is overrated, the harder you work the more money you make (which for this part of the argument should be ignored) and the socialists are going to take more and more of your money. If you make more than $23,100 they will try to take 15% of your money, over $43,550 they will try to take 25% of your money and if you work even harder they will take away 28%, or even 33% or oh my god, even 35%. And it gets even worse. If you get really rich and build houses and stock portfolios and cars and get wealthy the socialists will take even more money even after you die in terms of estate taxes. What is the incentive to work (aside from building wealth and raising your standard of living) if all it does is pay more taxes??????So to make sure you don’t pay more in taxes you should go work at McDonalds and aim to die as broke as you possibly can.

And please stop bitching about getting a tax refund. Greed is good. When there is prosperity ambitious people spot the opportunity and they build businesses around it that benefit more people and improve everyone that business touches – higher wages, higher tax brackets – higher standard of living. On the flip side, when the government is forced to cut programs that a lot of families rely on it causes those families to have parents cut hours or even quit working which decreases discretionary spending which decreases the consumerist nature which leads to more layoffs and more unemployed people which in turn leads to less tax revenues and an effective freeze in American prosperity that most of us have enjoyed for quite some time.

Patriotism goes beyond a bumper sticker. If you are Joe the Plumber and get the privilege of casting a vote this November 4th ask yourself if you are really voting for your and your family’s best interests.

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6 Comments

Michael D. Alligoood | October 29th, 2008 at 2:41 am

The harder you work the more money you make the more money you contribute to your community and your country and the more of it goes to eliminate poverty, educate the population, feed the hungry…

And how has that been working out for us as a nation thus far? We will never eliminate poverty and feed all the hungry. Nor can we educate those that have no desire to be educated – no matter how much money we invest. We have tried to rescue an entire continent (Africa) for decades now. How is that working out? That is the biggest money pit in the world. Regardless, it really doesn’t matter who is in the White House. It is a combination of all 3 branches to blame, not one man.

If they really want us to keep more of our money, dump social security first. It is worthless. We as a people need to start taking responsibility of ourselves and stop looking to the deferal government to take care of us all the time. Just my 2 cent that I worked for. :)



vlad | October 29th, 2008 at 2:47 am

Michael,

I think this is the essence of the problem and unrealistic expectations – you want to educate everyone, feed everyone, etc – you want it all or none – so if we can’t have white we must have black or vice versa. The world doesn’t work in such absolute result sets.

I think you’re wrong, but I’m just asking that people think this stuff through in the context of it’s historical and business sense, not the angry review of it they heard on radio or a TV commercial.

-Vlad



Yan Herndon | October 29th, 2008 at 3:04 am

I think taxes are the only way to suck off the mass inflation caused by the fractional reserve banking system. But then again I’m a kook.



Daniel Koster | October 29th, 2008 at 4:07 am

Not that it matters, but income taxes were ruled unconstitutional in the 1800′s for the few times that Congress tried making it happen. It was the 16th Amendment that then made it a permanent and “normal” part of life.

Personally I’d rather see taxes be based on how much a person wants to spend rather than how much they earn. It still yields the results you want (the McDonalds employees will pay very little and the successful much more). Too bad neither candidate wants to back the FairTax.



Darren | October 30th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

Hmmm…let’s see how this “spreading the wealth” concept works in other areas.

My wife is a school teacher. Her sister is also a school teacher in the same school and same grade.

My sister-in-law has a student that is very dedicated, works hard, studys hard, and pays attention in class. He typically gets 100s on most exams. He is your typical college-bound A student.

My wife has a student that doesn’t work hard, doesn’t study, doesn’t complete homework assignments and typically gets 60s on most exams. He is your typical doesn’t give a shit D student.

Under Vlad’s view of the world, the A student would have to give up 20 of their test score points to give to D student, thus bringing them both to C+ status. Sound right?

1 – What is the incentive for the A student to continue working hard when a significant portion of their hard work gets handed to a lazy shithead?

2 – What is the incentive for the lazy shithead to do better? As long as there are A students holding him up, he’s got nothing to worry about, right?

The problem is that after a while, the A student says fuck this and joins the lazy shitheads of the world, resulting in louder sucking sound at government tit (at the expense of we achievers).

This is welfare, plain and simple. This is exactly how the welfare system in this country works today, and it’s not abused or corrupt, is it? I’m all for helping the folks who have a need but limits need to be imposed to prevent those in “need” from perpetually being in that state. This a fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives. Liberals want to keep handing you food (thus keeping you in perpetual need of their services), while conservatives want to teach you how to go out and hunt your own food to feed your family.

I’m with Karl…fire ‘em all…every last one. We need to show our “representatives” that they do indeed work for us and we are able and willing to remind them from time to time.



vlad | October 30th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

Darren,

Sorry, try making that argument in the scope of financial / economic terms..

I think there is again this black/white issue – all people receiving welfare are deadbeats and all conservatives are self-made men that did it all on their own without anyones assistance. That’s just not a realistic view of the world man.

I’m with Karl too, I’d fire them all when the performance suffers. I do so in my business as well.

-Vlad

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