Complaining on Facebook

I found myself getting into a discussion on Facebook again. To prevent me from doing it as often I have made a promise to myself that I will always turn it into a blogpost.

It started with a meme… because it always starts with a meme.

My response:

Let's be specific. There is good tax and bad tax. We need to generate money to pay for things we need. There is a difference between using taxes to pay to improve roads that we drive on and sidewalks to walk on. For police and firemen. That kind of taxes I am fine with paying for. I am fine paying for public education to make sure kids grow up to learn math so they can contribute to society.

I don't want my tax dollars going to things I can't use, such as tax breaks for rich men who have 3-4 homes. I don't want my tax dollars going towards corrupt politicians who don't take part in legislating and finding solutions to problems such as our health care system.

Just like everyday people, we need to have jobs to make money. Taxes are a way of creating revenue to provide a good living environment.

People don't like paying taxes. Just because people understand why we pay taxes doesn't mean they like it. It just means it's not worth bitching about it because they do see the benefits outweigh the alternative. I pay taxes and see it as my part of paying for a nice place to live in (you pay what you get) or you live in a sh*thole. And I'll spend the money because I prefer to not live in a sh*thole.

I’m happy to say that I got at least 8 likes. I friend of the friend also responded. I won’t copy exactly what he said. I will paraphrase.

He was eluting to the FairTax Act. He even went so far as to link a video of a bunch of bad actors explaining the concept. He ended his statement with, “The problem is the government, not the rich”.

My question to him about the video he posted explaining the fair tax was as follows:

Okay, correct me if I’m wrong. How I understand FairTax is that employers pay more than they want to pay employees to work because tax gets taken out of their paycheck. Example: employer pays a wage of $15 an hour to attract workers. After taxes are taken out it leaves the employees with only $10 an hour to live on. So, if employees didn’t need to pay taxes, they could take home the whole $15! Is that one part of the FairTax idea?

But the way I see it is if the employee has been living on $10 an hour before when taxes were taken out of their check, why couldn’t the employer lower their wage to $10? Why would they keep paying the employee $15 an hour still? When the only reason the wage was that amount in the first place was to have a living wage to take home?

This idea is based on the idea that the employee’s salary will remain the same if taxes are not taken out of the check.

To my surprise, he responded cordially by calling me ignorant in the most respectful way. He told me not to take offense that I was coming at it ignorantly.

He first discussed that it would increase wages because the money saved from not paying taxes would fall back into the company. “The tax falls into a "consumption" form, thus making the things you purchase more expensive. So, wages need to keep up with that.” My thought is that if the wages didn’t go up, the consumers would be screwed.

Again, the idea is that it will “Increase” wages. It sounds like trickle-down economics. In theory, it works. You’re right! In theory, it would allow the company to keep more money and pay more employees. Yes! …In theory! But you have no control over the company owners. Free trade. They can pay whatever they want to their workers. Once they have that extra money from not paying taxes, they can keep it as well. Correct? They are not obliged to pay the staff more. And if you have a few employers that refuse to pay more to their staff and then products go up in price because they go into “consumption” form, then people will not have the money to buy those products. If they don’t have the money to buy those products, then the owner will not make revenue.

He added, “But if you do not spend, you pay no tax. This is where it hits the rich the hardest, as it should. There is no tax on food or clothes, so you could literally live without paying any tax. Your money is only taxed when you spend it. Save it tax-free. Give it away tax-free.”

“If you do not spend, you pay no taxes.” What do you mean if there is no tax on food and clothing? How would that work? If I made peanut butter sandwiches to sell, I wouldn’t pay for the peanut butter or the jam or the bread... okay... but I would still need to have a butter knife to spread the peanut butter, the plastic bag to put the sandwich in, the soap to wash my hands…and I the person making the sandwich don’t get any money for my service of making the sandwich?

Apparently, Americans should have never allowed taxes to be linked to income in the first place. He couldn’t understand why people didn’t stop it when it was started. Well, people did resent paying income taxes. But Americans always paid taxes and we are now in a time with the least amount of taxes.

He ended it by saying I struck him as someone who “hates the rich,” like someone who hates the rich. But I shouldn’t take offense to it (eye wink emoji).

I retorted with:

What does it mean to be rich? Rich is an attitude. My great-uncle drove a Rolls Royce and owned multiple businesses. He had two houses, one in Eau Claire and one in Naples, Florida, on a golf course. He was rich. I loved him very much. He was a wonderful man! My mother was his favorite niece. He would go out of his way to help his family, my grandma, and my dad. He grew up dirt poor. I don’t think that happens much anymore. He was also a strong Democrat and supported the carpenter's and roofers' unions.

I don’t hate people who have money that they earned by working hard and paying their fair share. I hate greedy people. I do resent people who “get rich” by playing dirty and not following rules. Playing dirty, like firing people just weeks before they retire so they don’t have a pension. Dumping chemicals in lakes and rivers to avoid paying $$ to dispose of them environmentally sound. Contracting with builders to build something and then not pay them but make money off the building that was built. These are real scenarios that happen. I don’t hate people. I hate the actions that people take. I think greed is evil. If taxes are spent on people's basic needs, we will have a healthy society. And it’s not about being a “bleeding heart liberal” I’m not. History has also shown that when most of the population has its basic needs met, the economy is good.

We know what happens if taxes are not taken out of income tax. That’s why people study the history of our economy in the United States and in other countries. We know what happens only if goods are taxed.

I don’t resent income tax. I work. If I want to make more money, I will find a job that pays more. I invest in education that allows me better choices of higher paying jobs. Why should I blame the government for not making enough money? Do I not have the opportunity to in the United States to pick my employment? What if the problem isn’t the Government “per se” but years of greedy people putting money into politicians who will make laws that will allow them to be greedier? To make more money for the sake of just making money.