Well, a day without a rich asshole whining about paying too much in taxes, is like a day without burning rectal itching. It's a real popular Wrong Wing talking point lately. The Rich, and Super Rich, in an attempt to appear just a little bit less like assholes, are almost universally stepping away from out and out saying, "Fuck the poor! If they want more money they can go and screw over some brown people in a third world country like I did.", and instead carefully shading their words. "Oh well I don't mind that those who have more money pay more. But it's not fair that so many people pay no taxes at all. Everyone should have some skin in the game." With the notable exception of Warren Buffet, (...And, hey, Warren? Nothing personal, but you're still an asshole. You're just less of an asshole than the rest of them....) pretty much anytime you hear anything from a millionaire, or billionaire, it's for them to seek to perpetrate two major bullshit notions.
One, that the only tax of any consequence is income tax. And two, that if you don't pay income tax than you have absolutely nothing invested in how things are run in this country.
Now the first one is of course fairly obviously bullshit. Setting aside all kinds of other non-income taxes that largely affect only the rich, and that they love paying about as much as they love paying their income tax, there is also one major tax that quite frankly the poor and Working Class get stuck with time after time, and the rich have a lot easier time avoiding. Namely, Sales Tax.
Let's face it, most of us don't have many, if any, options when it comes to sales tax. If we are really, really, lucky our state will be having a tax free weekend, and we can manage to wait to buy some of the higher end goods (like computers) until then. But that's pretty much it. Every time we buy something there's most likely a tax on it. The rich however, have a whole host of options, ranging from going to where there's little to no sales tax, be it within this country or outside of it, to getting the tax exempted by falsely claiming that they are buying something for resale, or some other purpose that allows a sales tax exemption, and then using it for personal use.
As for the second claim? Well there's an old saying, "To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Perhaps that's true of the very rich as well. Maybe to them every problem looks like it's about money. But it's just not so.
Ask the black man getting pulled over by the cops because he's in a predominantly white neighborhood late at night, whether he has anything invested in the laws that are passed in this country, regardless of how much he does or does not pay in taxes.
Or, maybe, the single mother working two jobs, to try and keep a roof over her and her sons head. Why don't you ask her, if since she doesn't pay any taxes, she doesn't feel she has anything invested in whether or not there is money for her sons school to have enough text books for all the kids.
Oh, oh, I know. Why don't you ask the people shopping at places like Walmart Super centers, if they don't feel they have any investment in whether or not the meat and produce they are buying is going to make them sick or not?
The bottom line is very simple. From the moment most of us are born we are affected by the things that the Government does, and does not do. Since most of us will never have enough money to have private schools, private chefs, private means of food production, or, well pretty much private anything, that means that we do not have any way of protecting ourselves except through the Government.
You worry about your money? You worry about that you might have a little bit less this year, than you did last year? Well I worry about getting sick, without any kind of meaningful healthcare. I worry, that if I have a child, a true education, not just indoctrination into serving the Corporatocracy, is beyond their grasp. I worry about whether or not the food I eat is going to make me sick or kill me. My ass is on the line every day in this country, yet I have to fight like a wildcat to get my voice heard, even a little bit. Meanwhile, all you've got at stake is some money. Of which you have plenty. So I'll say it again. I've got all twenty pounds in the game. What the fuck have you got?
Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!
(To read an enhanced version of this article just click here!)