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Federal Income Tax Contribution

"The bottom half of earners in America contribute only 3% of the (federal) taxes collected..."

To put things in perspective:

I recently watched a CNBC interview with Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. He mentioned reading about a nurse in NYC that earns $75K a year and pays "in excess of" $1K a month in federal income tax. While I would consider this a middle class wage, the Pew Research Center defines the middle class as "earning between two-thirds and double the national median household income, which hovers around $84,000." Isn't it sad that somebody that goes to school, learns a usable skill and contributes to the health and safety of society still doesn't warrant a 'middle class' salary? Bezos came right out in the interview and stated plainly that he doesn't think she should be required to pay any income tax at all.

Now, I'm no tax expert, nor do I play one on TV, but I'm having a frickin hard time understanding why all the educated nitwits in DC can't come up with a simple system of taxation and spending, with oversight, that works.

Question: what would happen if taxes on the bottom 50% of earners were cancelled?

Eliminate income taxation on anybody making less than X dollars per year. Keeping the rest of the tax structure in place, that would place 100% of the tax burden on the top 50% of the earners in America. Would the country collapse? I doubt it.

How should the government replace that 3% of revenue? How about establishing a temporary panel of folks that are experts in running successful business, and tasking them with finding wasteful and fraudulent government spending. Maybe we could call it something like the "Department of Government Efficiency"? Oh wait, the current administration tried that and Uncle Lefty and Auntie Karen got their panties in a bunch and screamed bloody murder. However, if such an agency could find real, recoverable dollars, maybe the tax burden could be lifted from the middle class as well. The middle 20% of taxpayers - commonly referred to as "the middle class" pay about 10% to 13% of all federal taxes. Do you think there is enough fraud and waste in the federal budget to cover 16% of federal taxes paid? I'd bet the number is significantly higher.

Might this un-demonize the successful in this country? Might this inspire growth and success? Might this give a stable foundation for families to re-build on?

I choose to believe:

Most of us do not expect somebody else to foot our bills, pay to feed and clothe us or give us everything we need to survive. We expect to work for a living and decide for ourselves how we spend - or save - any excess income we generate. I also believe most of us want to help other people in our community and world. It's just we know we are responsible to and for our families first.

The entitlement lifestyle, I suppose, has always existed to one extent or another. There has always been those who believed they had a God-given right to something that somebody else had earned. For this reason, I choose to call it a lifestyle as opposed to applying it to any specific generation or age group. As with any lifestyle, the entitlement lifestyle is chosen and it doesn't have to be permanent. People can learn. People can change. People can spend their efforts working toward a solution instead of sitting on the couch expecting Medicaid, food stamps, section 8 etc, etc, etc to provide for their needs.

Final Thoughts

The majority of the country is suffering financially, physically, mentally and emotionally. Tax reform isn't the be-all and end-all solution that will relieve our suffering, but it sure could be a good start.

If our low and middle income earners weren't being required to contribute so many of their dollars to 'the government', what would they be spending it on? Eliminating their bills. Putting groceries in their pantries. Making sure their kids and aging family members aren't going without what they need. Accomplishing those things would alleviate much of the mental and emotional burden.

If the safety and well-being of this country's citizens were our government's primary concern, many of the nation's ills would heal themselves. New or increased taxes, new regulations on business and private citizens just sinks us deeper and deeper.

Any elected official or public service employee who knowingly gives one red cent to the support of an illegal "undocumented" immigrant while even one American citizen is homeless, unfed, unemployed or uninsured should be charged and jailed for crimes against America. Sanctuary City's ass! You wanna be a sanctuary city, how bout we declare you a prison colony. Put a wall around you and call it an international border, and you can just stay there, permanently. Hope the illegals you so warmly welcome eat you alive.

As long as politicians are more focused on things that matter a whole lot less, on things that polarize/divide our people, on providing for foreign people entering our country illegally before we make sure the people who have lived here their whole lives are cared for, on demonizing success and supporting socialist policies that are doomed to fail, healing will be delayed.

Make no mistake, healing will be painful. You're gonna have to work for your provision. You may have to do without your red bull and honey bun put on your EBT card. You might just have to eat beans and franks one night and franks and beans the next to pay the rent.

Healing will come eventually. When it does, America will be back in a position to help other countries heal their ills. But America for Americans must come first.

Our people have known for a very long time that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody, somewhere is paying for it.

Stop voting for 'representatives' that tell you they are going to give you something for free! Make every candidate for elected office tell you how they are going to change things and how they are going to pay for those changes.

Stop relying on somebody else to take care of your responsibilities. Stop blaming somebody else for your failures.

Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes

Stop asking for stupid shit without considering the impact! Several years back when minimum wage rhetoric was heating up, anybody who thought about it outside of just the effect on them personally, knew any major change was going to result in disaster. But nobody wanted then or now to look at it logically. The standard argument was that minimum wage is supposed to 'provide a living wage' for every stage of life. Employers, big bad business, makes plenty of money and should provide the same starting wage to everybody regardless of their background or status, education or experience. Low minimum wage became an excuse for laziness, lack of motivation and and a deepening of the victim mentality. One's inability to make a good wage became somebody else's fault. Couldn't be something I did! Must be Walmart's fault.

Regardless of what the Fair Labor Standards Act says, minimum wage as practically understood, was not meant to be a permanent status. It was meant to be a base wage that was started at as a new member of the work force. It was expected that a person would start at that wage and develop through training and experience into somebody who would contribute value to the product or service they were providing thereby making their employer more money and earning themselves a higher wage. Your wage is expected to be based on your ability, performance and contribution to the company you work for. If you have minimum ability, minimum performance and make a minimal contribution to the company, you are only worth minimum wage.

The current minimum wage in New York City is $17 per hour, $16 per hour everywhere in the state outside of the NYC area. Idiots in the area are still asking why a Big Mac costs $10 bucks when it was only $4.89 in 2020. Minimum wage in NY in 2020 was only(?) $11.80 per hour. That same Big Mac in 1980 cost $1.60 when minimum wage was $3.10 per hour. Up went minimum wage, (not to mention State regulatory compliance costs) and up went the cost to make your Big Mac.

What don't people think about when they see the minimum wage numbers? People recognize that minimum wage is the lowest amount per hour paid to everybody on the clock. As Americans, we still recognize that more experience often means better performance and requires better pay. When everybody on the payroll, including the crackhead drooling in the corner with a McD's cap on and a mop in his hand, is making at least $16 per hour, the dude eating crayons but NOT drooling over the grill where your Big Mac is frying expects $17 per hour. The young lady working the drive thru that speaks English and has most of her teeth and greets customers with a smile demands $18 per hour. The shift manager is gonna want at least $20 per hour to keep everybody safe and not burn the place down. And by the way, any McDonald's around here, you don't see a cashier. You walk in place your order at a kiosk, pay with your debit card and wait patiently for the brown bag - hopefully containing what you ordered - to come through the window onto the counter. Many folks hate it. Sorry Lefty. You did it to yourself. The kiosk doesn't cost $16 per hour to run, whether there's customers or not.

That $10 Big Mac pays roughly a half an hour's labor for one employee. Not the meat. Not the bun. Not the salad. Not the condiments. Not the wrap. Not the bag. Not the salt or pepper. Just a half an hour's labor for one employee. Not the building lease. Not the electric. Not the gas. Not the maintenance. Not the franchise fee. Not the insurance on the building. Not the landscaping. Not the snow removal. Not the uniforms. Not the worker's comp insurance, not the training....you starting to get the picture? McDonald's - or any fast food joint - has to sell a whole lot of burgers and fries just to break even. The more requirements put on the owner by the state, the higher the owner's cost. The higher the owner's cost, the smaller his profit margin. At one point, the owner experiences negative margins (losing money). He lays off all his employees and closes the store. No more jobs. No more tax income to the state. A dozen or so more people trying to draw unemployment, medicaid, food stamps, rent and utility assistance....and that dude eating crayons and frying your burger went from $17 per hour to $0 per hour. Good job. And in case you missed it, the programs those former workers are looking to get are paid for by the big bad evil rich dude's corporate taxes paid to the state. Oh, wait. Big bad evil rich dude moved his business to Florida where it doesn't cost him as much to provide a service and jobs. So, now who is going to pay to those folks the stuff they need? Shit. Rich people are gone. Guess we'll just have to raise the taxes on the middle class.

My perspective from growing up in the 60's and 70's: your first job, you start at minimum wage. By the end of summer, you were making minimum wage plus 10 cents as long as you showed up every day and provided the minimum effort to get the job done. If you worked hard and had 'working papers', you finished the summer making minimum wage plus a quarter. If you were known in the neighborhood, doing good in school, weren't too much of a punk and always in trouble, you could start the next summer with the same employer for minimum wage plus a dollar. Once you got out of high school, you went in the military, went to college or trade school, or went right to work in your home town area. And the education-training-experience continued. You learned, got better at what you did. Made your employer money and progressed up the ladder with incremental raises. The only times since I was 15 years old that I've made minimum wage has been when I needed to pick up a second job part time to make ends meet, and the only part time jobs available were paying minimum wage.

If you are able-bodied, over 18, have a HS diploma or GED, aren't an ex-con and are still working for minimum wage, you are either

"But what can I do?"