Government looting and the effectiveness of shrugging
Posted by LionelHutz 12 years, 2 months ago to Economics
In the days of old, our government funded itself by taxing the people through various means, but most prominently by the Income Tax.
As the government becomes the primary looter, the means of revolt expressed in Atlas Shrugged makes a lot of sense.
One deprives the government of their loot by depriving them of your production.
(They can't tax what you don't make).
However, I think we have been in a new era for a while now.
We are in an era where the government doesn't need your tax money.
Think about this. We already know Social Security and Medicare are going to go broke. We've known it for years.
So what sane politician says lets expand the program (Medicare D), and then cut the revenue stream funding it (employee portion of social security)? Both actions drive the programs deeper into debt.
How are things even staying afloat?
The answer is the government is now writing IOUs, selling them to the Chinese for face value, and telling them they may collect it with interest in the future...from our unborn children.
THIS IS TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.
The following data comes from the back page of the 1040 instruction book for the past decade or so:
Percentage of Income derived from Income Taxes and Borrowing.
(Note that while the 1040 data separates income taxes from social security and medicare taxes, I lump them together in this table).
Year Taxes Borrowing
1999 82% 0%
2000 82% 0%
2001 85% 0%
2002 78% 8%
2003 70% 17%
2004 67% 18%
2005 70% 13%
2006 71% 9%
2007 75% 6%
2008 69% 15%
2009 51% 40%
2010 51% 37%
2011 53% 36%
The govt of the USA hasn't been known for compelling people to work in order to keep their income stream coming in.
Shrug all you want. The govt will simply sell more IOUs to the Chinese to make up for it.
At some point in time, the Chinese are going to come to collect on those IOUs.
Is it unreasonable to think that your children may be put into a labor camp?
Agree? Disagree? How does one fight against this?
As the government becomes the primary looter, the means of revolt expressed in Atlas Shrugged makes a lot of sense.
One deprives the government of their loot by depriving them of your production.
(They can't tax what you don't make).
However, I think we have been in a new era for a while now.
We are in an era where the government doesn't need your tax money.
Think about this. We already know Social Security and Medicare are going to go broke. We've known it for years.
So what sane politician says lets expand the program (Medicare D), and then cut the revenue stream funding it (employee portion of social security)? Both actions drive the programs deeper into debt.
How are things even staying afloat?
The answer is the government is now writing IOUs, selling them to the Chinese for face value, and telling them they may collect it with interest in the future...from our unborn children.
THIS IS TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.
The following data comes from the back page of the 1040 instruction book for the past decade or so:
Percentage of Income derived from Income Taxes and Borrowing.
(Note that while the 1040 data separates income taxes from social security and medicare taxes, I lump them together in this table).
Year Taxes Borrowing
1999 82% 0%
2000 82% 0%
2001 85% 0%
2002 78% 8%
2003 70% 17%
2004 67% 18%
2005 70% 13%
2006 71% 9%
2007 75% 6%
2008 69% 15%
2009 51% 40%
2010 51% 37%
2011 53% 36%
The govt of the USA hasn't been known for compelling people to work in order to keep their income stream coming in.
Shrug all you want. The govt will simply sell more IOUs to the Chinese to make up for it.
At some point in time, the Chinese are going to come to collect on those IOUs.
Is it unreasonable to think that your children may be put into a labor camp?
Agree? Disagree? How does one fight against this?
Previous comments... You are currently on page 3.
I just quickly peeked and almost threw my iPad across the room... I could not even make myself touch the screen to animate that hideous beast!!!!! Oh, I need a sedagive!!!
They do get as big as a salad plate, and they float, as I witnessed in the guest bathroom that had just been finished.... UGH!!!
For those wanting substantiation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stat...
The Wiki summarizes this situation thusly:
As of July 2012, $5.3 trillion or approximately 48% of the debt held by the public was owned by foreign investors, the largest of which were China and Japan at just over $1.1 trillion each.
So, if they've got 48%, I imagine about another 40% of it is of the "money the USA owes itself" variety.
This amounts to saying "well, we know we can't get the money out of THIS generation. We're just going to stack up debt until we raise a dumber generation that will tolerate a > 50% tax rate". Or, more likely, they just keep printing the money and hope everyone is too dumb to notice they're living under hyperinflation.
The answer isn't to shrug. It's to earn as much as you can and convert those federal reserve notes to precious metals!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APxMQStYV...
as far as calling us losers, that's just silly. you have one point to your name and have no idea what others in here have done or not done in the world. I'd re-check my premises, if I were you, because if you can go this wrong in here, I'm worried about you skippering a sailboat
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