In case you were wondering where all that tax money you pay really goes, I’ve got some news for you. While some of it goes to national defense, most of it is simply being transferred to someone else. Marx and Stalin would be proud.
Evans On The Economy — Tax Cheats Snub Spend-Crazy Feds
Soon it will be everyone’s favorite day — April 15th. How much will you owe? Federal income taxes are only the beginning. Last year, federal income taxes totaled $932 billion, or about $6,650 per employee. But people paid $1.286 trillion in other federal taxes, mostly Social Security taxes. And — keep those calculators going — the state and local tax bill totaled $1.14 trillion.
Directly or indirectly, employees and proprietors paid this entire bill of $3.358 trillion, or almost $24,000 per employee. Total compensation earned by employees and individual proprietors last year was about $8.2 trillion, so, by my calculation, this means 40% of your income went to various government agencies.
And where did that 40% of your income go? Most of it, if you’re under 65 and working at a regular job, went to the less fortunate. The numbers are stunning. Federal expenditures were $2.55 trillion, with $495 billion going for national defense and another $272 billion going for purchased goods and wages paid. At the same time some $1.69 trillion was transferred to someone else — well, actually a lot of someone elses. That’s some federal case. […]
At this rate, it will be socialist economic collapse that destroys this nation before terrorism even has a chance.
Related Links:
Alliance for Worker Freedom
Americans for Fair Taxation
Economist: The Flat tax Revolution
Steve Forbes: Americans deserve flat tax
Moving election day to a day or two after tax filing day would help get rid of a few big spending politicians.
Here’s a disturbing paper, a Congressional Budget Office analysis (from 2002) of the Federal Government share of the economy from 1950 to (projecting into the future) 2075. Lord knows, we can’t see clearly ahead to next week, let alone to 2075, but we’re obligated to plan for the future as best we can, in spite of our myopia. Anyway, the concern is that, as the century creeps along, the Medicare and Medicaid programs threaten to grow massively, until they, combined with Social Security, consume over 20% of GDP. In other words, the government retirement and health care programs will be bigger, relative to the economy, than the entire Federal government is today! That, plus increasing interest payments, threatens to double the size of the Federal government, relative to the size of the economy. So much for small government, eh? This is the future we wish to avoid. I wonder how we can do it. Projections are always very questionable, but the potential for this to come true is certainly real. Remember: If we do nothing to stop this, our future is doomed to be very, very left wing.
On a side note, I’d like to get rid of payroll tax withholding. Part of the reason our citizens put up with high taxes is the taxes are pretty much invisible. We never see the money they take. If we had it in our hands and then had to send it to the government, we’d take it more seriously. Also, I’d like to see a minimum tax on low-wage earners. Our “progressive” tax structure gives too many people a free ride. I don’t want to squeeze the poor, but I want them to have a sense that they, too, are paying. Otherwise they get the unrealistic idea that tax money is free money, and they’ll vote accordingly. Rush Limbaugh has posted an interesting set of statistics. Mention this the next time somebody tells you the rich aren’t paying their fair share.
I have often wondered if a favorite argument of Liberals could be used against the income tax system (at least the transfering of wealth part). Here is my idea:
Since government welfare is really just another name for charity(even though the money distributed to the ‘poor’ is collected at the point of a gun), and since charity is clearly defined in the Bible as a Christian value, can’t the separation of church and state argument be used against this activity? Aren’t the Federal and state governments welfare programs performing a Christian activity?
Just a thought. I would love to see someone with the time and money file suit against the government using that argument. It probably wouldn’t get anywhere, but it might draw some public scrutiny to this horrible tax and welfare system we have in this country.