Sunday, April 6, 2008

Socialist Insecurity



So how much tax would it take to fix this problem? Let's say that every person in the US makes an average of twenty thousand dollars per year. That is, every person including retired people, newborn infants, everybody. This is ludicrous, of course. I would be surprised if we averaged TWO thousand a year, taken like that. But stay with me, here. Let's further suppose that we implement a tax increase, over and above what we currently pay out in taxes, so we can cover this expense; and we will spread it out evenly over the next twenty years. This tax increase will be a temporary measure only, to get us past the crisis; after which it will sunset (yeah, right). Does this sound reasonable?
OK. To do this will require that the additional tax be set at 50% of our income, if we average $20,000 per each of the 300 million people in this country. That's not 50% of our "taxable" income, nor certainly 50% of that remaining after all the other taxes are paid. That is 50% of our gross pay.
But wait. Only about half of the population is of working age. OK, then the average pay will have to be $40,000 per year, instead of $20,000. Half of the gross pay of everybody, if the average is 40 thousand.
We already pay pretty close to 50% of our gross pay, if you consider all forms of taxation, licensing, etc. Take the other 50% and what's left?
Oh, and where's the money gonna come from for that nationalized (AKA socialized) health care? Think about it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but Glen Beck seems to think he's also entitled to his own facts. He's so consistently wrong about so many things, and makes his biases so blatantly clear that I'm surprised you'd bother posting a video from his show.

Tracy said...

I really don't know anything about him, Nan, but I do know that SS has never been what it was purported to be, nor what most people think it is. I also know that it's headed for failure soon, and none of the big 3 presidential candidates are even addressing it.
I certainly think those who have paid into SS are owed the money and should receive it. But politicians need to stop lying about it and start addressing the problem.
Besides, regardless of what Glen Beck says or doesn't say, what David Walker has to say about the situation just might be worth listening to.

Anonymous said...

The Repugnicans have been trying to kill Social Security since day one and I see you have bought into their propaganda. SS is the reason we no longer have county and city poor farms where those who could no longer work went to live until they died. SS allowed people to send their kids to college because their parents had an income to live on. The real problem is that the 'borrow and spend Repugnicans' have run up such a huge national debt that there is little money for anything but let's spend more money on the military than the rest of the world combined anyway. There are many things we could do to save SS but there are too many people who don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of who think taxing those who can afford to pay it is wrong and we should instead give them more money.