What if your company where you worked were bought out by another company and in that acquisition you were offered $100,000.00 as a bonus for the acquisition? Would you take it? In the state of Colorado where I live taxes on that money, including federal taxes on that money would put you at having 40% taken in taxes (without itemized deductions and what not). That would be like actually getting 60,000.00. Would you still take it? Oops, I forgot something. The Federal Government actually takes a bonus 20% on top of that for them because the money is a lump sum. That would leave you with $40,000.00 out of an original $100,000.00. Would you still take it?
Sure, you’d still want the money, but I think that the recent hullabaloo that I’ve heard recently about taxing the wealthy (AKA ‘rich’) to distribute the wealth is not as forthright as it sounds. There are two (or more) areas that concern me about this. The first is that recent numbers show that just under 40% of the entire nation’s federal income tax is generated by the top 1% of America’s earners. That’s right, the ration is that askew [see: http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/23440.html]. The second is that in my own household if I am strapped for cash: I have to either go into deeper debt (which I’m digging out of) or I have to cut spending. I can only go so far deep into debt, so we cut spending. If the Federal government wants to get their budget together, they too, should have to cut spending and not raise billions or trillions of dollars in debt.
Here’s the kicker: if you add on sales tax which there is the potential of the $40,000.00 being spent ‘in state’ you could see up to 10% MORE tax being taken at the register depending where you go shopping. That means that out of the original $100,000.00 the person who was rewarded by their company has now had 70% taken in the form of taxes. That would make me want to throw another tea party.
I know that as a country we’re all trying to see equitable charity, the furtherance of our families and the general well being of the population, but if we can’t afford wellfare programs because we don’t have enough money, if we can’t afford to pay for a massive military (which is a hot topic and I won’t attempt to address it in this post), if we can’t afford to watch our airports with a crack squad of TSA agents (who fail to find my pocket knife every time I forget I have it with me) then we need to cut things. This hurts. This could impact jobs, this could impact the entire nation.
Here’s an opportunity for Americans to be innovative again. This nation had a time of prosperity that was unbelievable. We had brilliant thinkers making brilliant products brilliantly. But we’ve passed that and now we’re all hoping to be lucky enough to make it with the next e-business, dot com super-story, or sue someone else for their money. But what if brilliant people worked together to make new brilliant products that we then sold to the rest of the world just like the ‘good old days’ only it was now?
Well, if that were to happen we’d tax the snot out of those brilliant people and punish them for their productivity. I think I’d prefer to just shuffle along and make moderate wages and not be taxed up to 70%. This isn’t Bill Gates’ problem. This isn’t Warren Buffet’s problem. This is your problem. It’s my problem. It’s our problem. Lets vote next month (not too many days away, now) with a conscience. Lets send a message to our representatives that we’re not going to take it any more. We, as a people, have a right to the fruits of our labor and at present we’re not looking out for one another, and it makes me sad. The good news is that there are ways out of where we’re at. It will take determination, and it might hurt a bit, but if we can make a united effort, we might just be the United People of the United States.
