One-Third a Slave

This year Americans had a total tax bill of 4.9 Trillion Dollars or 31% of the nation's income.  It took American's until April 24th to work off that debt or approximately one-third of the year. Now some of our liberal friends will argue that we benefit from that... and we do, but so do those that live on the largesse of our elected representatives.

When you add in all of our expenses, estimates for the total tax burden range from 43%-58%.  There are a myriad of taxes and fees that are passed on to you in the expenses for goods and services, and you're paying for them whether you realize it or not.

Wat Tyler where are you now?

Nuff Said?

AEI

How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm

After they've seen Barrie?

Burger King announces $11.4 billion dollar purchase of Tim Horton's and its move and reincorporation in Canada.

 

Why? 

The nominal corporate tax rate in the US (totaling national, state, and city taxes) is 39.1%, the highest of all OECD nations.  By comparison, France, which you've been hearing so much about lately vis a vis tax refugees, is 34.4%.  Canada in comparison is only 26.3%.  Washington Post

And now a little light entertainment...

Pockets Picked?

Henry Holiday, Rework by DL5MDA

Tax Freedom Day is April 21st

It's the day when the nation has earned enough money to pay its bills, not counting the annual budget deficit. April 21st is the 111th day of the year, or 30.41% to be precise.

If you throw in the amount borrowed each year, Tax Freedom day advances to the 6th of May, 34.5% of the year gone by, the great beast Leviathan devouring a third of everything in sight.

Slaving Away

If I worked every day it would take me 67 days to pay off my tax bill, since I don't work every day that works out to my personal day of freedom being April 9th, so I'M A FREE MAN!!! Well at least until next year.  There are 251 workdays this year and and 27% of mine will be used to pay the piper.

Or maybe not. Throw in the state and you can add another 20 days to that total. 35% of all work I will accomplish will fill another's coffers. I won't be free until the 7th of May after over four months of servitude.

In counter-revolutionary France every man had to give three days labor or its monetary equivalent to be allowed to vote.  In Colonial Madagascar every free male commoner had to pay 25 Francs or give fifty days of labor (for which he was paid 25 centimes a day for food).  In the Spanish Philippines it was forty days for each male between 16 and 60, although in 1884 it was reduced to 15 days. In Romania prior to 1864 it was fourteen days. In 1797 Paul I of Russia declared 3 days to be normal and sufficient.

Bellatores, Labores, and Oratores

 

 Here below, some pray, others fight, still others work . . .

from the beginning, mankind has been divided into three parts,
among men of prayer, farmers, and men of war . . .

Isn't a truly wonderful thing to be free of feudalism?

 

Cheer up peasants the corvée is almost paid.

On a more positive note, I guess I have arrived.  The White House released the president's tax return last week. It shows he and the first lady paid $98,169 in taxes for 2013 on income of $481,098. That's an effective tax rate of 20.4 percent. Both yours truly and the president pay the same effective tax rate.  Funny, that doesn't feel like any sort of achievement, maybe I should find out who his accountant is.  NPR

We Need More Labels!

 

Everyone is familiar with the standard nutrition label.

You'll find them on pretty much everything you eat, you may soon find them on restaurant menus.

Perhaps we need a tax and duties label.

Let's say you buy an Armani suit that is worth $500.  That suit has an import duty of 10% plus $0.386 per kilogram.  I did a little research and found out that the average suit weight 1.6 pounds so our total is now $550.28

Let's say you bought it in Orange County, California. What is everybody's piece of the pie?

Federal: $50.28
State of California: $33.02
Sheriff: $2.75
D.A: $2.75
Orange County: $4.12
City: $4.12
Roads:  $1.38
Health & Welfare: $2.75
State Optional Fund: $1.38
Orange County Transportation: $2.75

Total Tax and Duties: $105.30
Total Price to Consumer: $605.58

So, on top of whatever percent you are paying in income tax, tack on another 21.06% for every suit you buy.

How'd you like to see that label on everything you buy?

We could even get a little more creative and add in the other costs associated with that $500.00 suit.

Fuel Taxes for transport.
Road Taxes for mileage.
Regulatory burdens.

And so on and so forth.

How big of a piece of your pie is the government actually getting?

Progressivism is Slavery

One fundamental difference between progressive statists (mostly democrats but quite a few repubs as well) and those of us who love liberty, is how we view the state.  Constitutional conservatives and libertarians believe that the state serves the people, safeguarding our natural rights to pursue life, liberty and happiness.

Progressives believe the opposite:  We exist to serve the state.  Armies of bureaucrats, regulators and self-important poobahs are needed at every station of life and human activity to keep us in line and to protect us from ourselves.  They tax the productive class to pay for it, and "fair share" means whatever they say it means, so shut up and cough it up, there are "poor" people out there who can't pay for all the babies they're making.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has angered two senators with his alleged decision to renounce his U.S. citizenship to save cash on taxes.

Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Bob Casey (D-PA) announced today that they'll be holding a special news conference at 8 a.m. PT to unveil a plan designed to stop people from renouncing their U.S. citizenship to avoid paying taxes. In addition, the plan will describe a new law that would bar "individuals like Saverin from reentering the country." (CNET - Saverin)

Progressives, true to their totalitarian predilections, view people as chattle to be milked for the good of the state.

Schumer and Casey aren't happy. And in today's statement, said that his "avoidance scheme" could cost the U.S. up to $67 million in tax revenue. (CNET - Saverin)

It’s called freedom of movement you dictatorial morons!  At what point does such egregious and flagrant  constitutional ignorance become criminal?  Can we prosecute them for swearing a false oath?  How about criminal stupidity?

This is why progressives can never be trusted with power. To them, the individual is always subordinate to the state.

Socialism's Sad Propagandists

The entire Class Warfare agenda collapses under serious scrutiny

President Obama's demagoguery surrounding wealth, taxes and everybody paying their "fair share" (what the hell ever that is) has passed its freshness date, but still it sits there in the public square, rotting like a sack of bloody fish heads in the harsh noonday sun.  

Progressive hopium smokers say things like this...

"We have very little progressivity in our tax code, we have among the world's worst wealth disparity, and when compared to income and wealth, the wealthy pay much less in taxes than do the rest of us." (Jersey McJones)

This is the propaganda that Obama's willfully-ignorant toadies will regurgitate in response to a perfectly good blog post written by blogger buddy Jack Camwell.

The Rich already pay more than the rest of us

The effective tax rate of the median income taxpayer, (due to exemptions, deductions, etc) is 7.4 %,  according to the New York Times, and not 15% or 25% as some have alleged.

Romney, a typical rich man who, like Warren Buffett, makes most of his money off of investments, had an effective rate of 13.9% in 2010. Rich men Obama and Gingrich paid 26.8% and 32.2% respectively. So rich people are paying at least twice the rate as the median income taxpayer, with some paying four times that.

Make the rich pay more?  Even taxing the 1% at 100%, essentially confiscating their entire paycheck every two weeks would yield only another $900 billion or so, a band-aid to Obama's gushing deficits.  Think about that for a moment.  Even complete confiscation would not solve our government's deficit problems.

Earned Income and Capital Gains are taxed at different rates

It is also useful to distinguish between earned income and capital gains. They are taxed at different rates. So the Warren Buffett's secretary argument is one of apples and oranges. And btw, she's not a school secretary earning $30,000 per year; she reportedly makes over $300K/year, which puts some of her income all the way up in the 33% bracket.  So yeah, Warren pays a lower effective tax rate, but he gets his money from captial gains, not salary.  Maybe she should ask to be paid in Berkshire Hathaway shares...

Wealth distribution" rhetoric betrays an anti-liberty, socialist mindset

Who distributes it? Based upon what criteria? Where does the wealth come from?  Who owns it?  Do they really believe Uncle Obama has a stash?  These unabashed socialists are talking about confiscating other people's money and redistributing it as they see fit, plain and simple.

The capitalist form of redistribution is going to work for a rich man in exchange for some of his money.

The US tax code is the most progressive among developed nations:

But a new study on inequality by researchers at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris reveals that when it comes to household taxes (income taxes and employee social security contributions) the U.S. "has the most progressive tax system and collects the largest share of taxes from the richest 10% of the population."

[...]  the U.S. tax system is far more progressive—meaning pro-poor—than similar systems in countries most Americans identify with high taxes, such as France and Sweden.  (The Tax Foundation)

Socialist Propaganda

Jersey's quote at the top of this article is a beautiful slice of sly socialist propaganda:

"...and when compared to income and wealth, the wealthy pay much less in taxes than do the rest of us."

See how Jersey sneaked in "and wealth?"  We do not tax wealth in this country! We tax income!  And did you notice the tautology?  The wealthy are wealthier than the rest of us because they have more wealth...

Here are the bare facts, and they are nowhere near what Jersey would have you believe:  The Top 5% of income earners pay over 50% of all taxes, while the bottom 50% pay just 2.25% Source:  National Taxpayer's Union

Always be sure to carefully parse progressive propaganda. They can't stick to the simple numbers, but must invent categories and sly formulations to make their propaganda points.

So, in summary, the poverty pimps and the class warfare hustlers on the left are full of crap

Yes, social issues and crony crapitalism contribute to wealth disparity, but so does lazy people sitting on their asses all day while entrepreneurs are out finding ways to make money by serving their fellow man.  An efficient market does not distribute rewards equally; it distributes them by merit.  

The rich pay the overwhelming preponderance of taxes in this country, and almost 50% of Americans pay no federal income tax whatsoever. Some even get Earned Income Tax Credit, where the government pays them! Thank President Gerald Ford (a republican) for enacting it, and President Ronald Reagan (a republican) for expanding it.

So put that in you hopium pipe and smoke it!

Send Warren Buffett to Afghanistan!

Warren Buffett continues to express a grandfatherly concern for the nation’s working class…

“OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks.” (NY Times – Warren Buffett)

There’s an easy solution to that one!

Expropriate the property of Buffett and his fellow billionaires, put guns in their hands and send them to Afghanistan. Turn their property over to the returning working class soldiers and their families. Problem solved.

But seriously, he raises some valid criticisms of our tax system...

“To understand why, you need to examine the sources of government revenue. Last year about 80 percent of these revenues came from personal income taxes and payroll taxes.” (NY Times – Warren Buffett)

Workaday people cannot escape such taxes, the rich routinely do, especially those who “make money from money” as Buffett explains. These are people who make money on trading, commission and dividends from investments. They don’t have to pay the payroll taxes working people do.

The El Lay Times editorial board chimes in on Buffett’s side…

Under the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which was signed by President Reagan, the number of tax brackets was reduced, loopholes were closed, the top tax rate was lowered and capital gains were taxed at the same rate as ordinary income. Yet in the years since, Congress has steadily drilled loopholes back into the code while lowering the tax burden for wealthy people who make money through investments rather than labor. That was the source of Buffett's complaint. (El Lay Times)

Some kind of a flat tax or national sales tax that exempted basic food staples would put an end to this class warfare rhetoric. And we need get it done so we can focus on real solutions that start by taking a crowbar to the Washington DC-Big Business pornographic embrace.

Higher Taxes or Increased Revenue: Which do You Want?

Big government statists make the common mistake of confusing taxes and revenue. They are not the same thing

Taxes are an assessment by government on your earnings. Revenue is the money flowing to the US treasury as a result of taxation. There is not a direct correlation between the two.   In fact, government data shows that often it is an inverse relationship.





Liberal Nostalgia

Poor liberals, staggering blindly around Left and Right Blogistan, suffering under the crack-brained theories of a Robert Reich or Rachel Maddow, parroting nonsensical "theories."  The latest shiny ideological bauble that has enraptured Left Blogistanis is the idea that government can restore fiscal sanity by returning to the sky high tax rates of the 1950's.

Why 70% Tax rates won’t work

...and this is what Mr. Reich and his friends always fail to mention—the individual income tax actually brought in less revenue when the highest tax rate was 70% to 91% than it did when the highest tax rate was 28%.

President John F. Kennedy's across-the-board tax cuts reduced the lowest and highest tax rates to 14% and 70% respectively after 1964, yet revenues (after excluding the 5%-10% surtaxes of 1969-70) rose to 8% of GDP. 

President Reagan's across-the-board tax cuts further reduced the lowest and highest tax rates to 11% and 50%, yet revenues rose again to 8.3% of GDP. The 1986 tax reform slashed the top tax rate to 28%, yet revenues dipped trivially to 8.1% of GDP.  (WSJ - Alan Reynolds)

So Robert Reich and his fellow travelers are peddling a cartload of statist crap.  The other factor these petty statists ignore is that in the 1950's we were the only viable post-WWII economy still standing.  We weren't just the only game in town, we were the only game in the world!  The rich had few options to hide their money from the avaricious clutches of the US government. Nowadays, the wealthy have a global smorgasbord of tax avoidance options.  They won't just sit here and take that level of taxation.

Our tax code is an incoherent mess. Half pay no income tax, the rich escape it, the working class cannot, businesses keep their money overseas to avoid US taxation, and friends of Obama like GM poobah Jeffrey HeMelts pay no taxes at all.

Caroline Baum lays out the solution quite nicely:

The solution, of course, is “the lowest rate on the broadest base with the least incentive to avoid, evade or not report taxable income,” Laffer says.

And once we find that illusive rate, let’s leave it there. Walk away. Forget about it. Tax policy, almost all experts agree, should be designed to raise revenue for necessary government programs as simply and as fairly as possible while minimizing economic inefficiency.

As things stand, tax policy is informed by special interests and implemented by lawmakers in the service of those interests. What’s good for one isn’t good for all, which is why tax uniformity should be the goal.

But no, some progressives don't care about facts and numbers, they just want to punish the rich, even if it results in less revenue flowing into the treasury, higher unemployment, and tax breaks for friends of Obama.

Picture yoinked from The Astute Bloggers

Stupid Statement of the Week

I love it when liberals slip up and reveal the truth...

It's easy to get a liberal to admit our growing debt is a problem.  It's the solution we differ on.

Like the Miller Lite commercials (Tastes Great!  Less Filling!) Conservatives and liberals shout at one another, "More Taxes!"  "Less Spending!"
 
Here's Uber lib Michael Tomasky making the case for taxing the rich (and inadvertently blowing it) :

If wealthy Americans were paying taxes at the rate they did 50 years ago, says former Clinton labour secretary Robert Reich, the government would be taking in $350bn more a year: budget woes over.  (Michael Tomasky – Guardian)

Hahahahahahahahaha! "budget woes over?"  Hardly!  350 billion would barely make a dent in Obama's 1.5 Trillion annual deficits.  Tomasky just proved the opposite: We cannot put our fiscal house in order by gouging the rich.

Thanks Michael!  And Thanks Robert Reich for blowing a humongous hole in your Soak The Rich argument!

When Winning Really Isn't Winning

Liberals were crowing about knocking off a conservative Wisconsin state supreme court justice, and the liberal candidate who stupidly declared victory before the votes were counted now has egg on her face.

The ballot count now shows the conservative incumbent with a probably insurmountable lead.  The results are not yet final, but even if the liberal Kloppenburg somehow wins, it is still not a liberal victory

Consider:  This election was held in the afterglow of the Madison liberal loon lollapalooza, the rage-filled teacher marches, trashing the capitol and protesting those union-busting meanies in the GOP who have the temerity to look after the interests of the taxpayer.  This election had an unprecedented turnout thanks to millions in union money and the rank and file marching in lockstep to the polling place.

And what does the left have to show for it?  50%.  Only 50% in the deep blue union stronghold of Wisconsin.  This is their high water mark.  Liberalism is a spent force in Wisconsin.  Sean Trend breaks down the numbers.

Finally, if those two little tidbits didn't start your weekend on a lighthearted note, this will: Uncoached - 10 Great Vintage Miller Lite Commercials