Wir sind bettler. Hoc est verum.

Ok I’ve been reading Marx and Smith and thinking about taxes. I want to know how did we as a country ever get to the place where we taxed companies? Just thinking about this seems completely unfair. So a company is taxed, then you get paid, and you are taxed, then you spend your money and you are taxed, then the company earns the money you spend and they are taxed. This means that from when a company gets money and you spend it, that money is taxed three times. How is this fair again? How is this capitalism? How is this good for our country?

Now I try to not get to political in my blog, but this just brings up so many questions for me that I have to bring them up. To me what would be fair would be either a flat income tax, where everyone got taxed the same percentage on what they earned, or a flat sales tax where people were only taxed on what they purchased. This triple plus taxation seems wrong.

Now I do believe that there are two major thoughts in our country right now, one is that the government knows better what to do with our money than we do, thus we should pay higher taxes and more taxes so that we do not get as much, and they get the most, so that they can use it for the greater good.

The other view is that we know better what to do with our own money so that the government should tax us less, we should keep more, and decide for ourselves what to do with our hard earned money.

Now I do believe that the first view is becoming the view of our government although I doubt the view of the majority. So what it really comes down to is do you believe that individuals should have the majority of the money (or corporations) or the government? Now I know that people hold their beliefs many times for very good and noble reasons, however, a good and noble reason doesn’t doesn’t mean all applications of it is realistic, reasonable, possible, or even good in reality. I may want to save the planet from pollution (a good and noble reason), but killing all human life isn’t a good solution. Perhaps I want every person to be happy and financially successful, so I say let the government handle wealth redistribution. This is a good and noble goal, but its application is not realistic, reasonable, possible, or even good, in fact history proves that this fails for EVERY country that tries it.
So to people who think the first view is best, let me ask you some questions:

1. Do you think a government that is corrupt can A. More efficiently handle our money than us? Or B. Can really truly redistribute money fairly?

I say that the government is corrupt, because I believe every government is corrupt to one degree or another. Show me a government ever in this world’s history present or past that didn’t have corruption in it and I will retract this statement. Show me where a government never had people who unfairly gave to their friends or family, or supporters over people they should have given to. Show me a government where the officials always acted in their people’s best interests and not their own. Show me a government where money was efficiently distributed and not wasted in bureaucracy.

2. Socialism has failed in every country where it was attempted. The rich got richer, and the poor got poorer, and the middle class dissapeared. The products got more expensive and were made cheaper quality wise. Industry slowed down in its creativity and the country as a whole made less money. Why do you think it would work here in America? Do you think the people here are smarter, better, or just plain different that the people in the other countries?

Yes, giving the government the majority of our money in order to make decisions for us, is socialism.

3. Our country became the richest and most powerful country precisely because people were allowed to take risks in the marketplace, and were allowed to reap the rewards or the failures. Because of this, people took educated risks and profited, and thus created industry and wealth, employed others who then succeeded became educated and did the same thing. In a society where people give most of their profits to the government, do you think it will succeed like it has before? What do you think socialism will do to people?

I will tell you. Under socialism people no longer want to take as many risks, because the reward isn’t as great as the risk. The more you punish entrepreneurs and make the rewards not worth the risk, the more you will destroy this country period. This country was built on entrepreneurs, the American dream was built on entrepreneurs, if you destroy them, you destroy America. California is a huge example of this, as they keep raising taxes, more companies leave and entrepreneurs leave, because the risk now outweighs the reward so they move to where the reward will outweigh the risk.

4. What do you think more taxes will do? Give the government more money?

In fact history shows us that when taxes go down, the government revenue from taxes goes up. Why? Because when taxes go down, entrepreneurs start working harder to make more money and create wealth and jobs. Why? Because most people in the world work harder when they get to keep their money instead of giving it to someone else.

5. Where do you think jobs come from? The government?

Picture this, every job is a government job, everyone who works is paid by the government. Ok, where does the money come from? Well either there is no new wealth being created, or the government just keeps printing more money. Either way the economy isn’t really growing, or growing that efficiently. Histroy shows us that governments are wasteful and if a government runs an industry, they do it much worse than the private sector could.  In reality it is entrepreneurs who are creating new wealth by creating new jobs, companies, products to be sold over seas, and better ways to do business. The government isn’t motivated to do things the best way, because they don’t get their money by doing it the best way, they get their money from other people trying to do it the best way. If your neighbor had to give you $10,000 dollars a week and all you had to do was mow their lawn, would you mow it? Or would you pay your best friend who doesn’t have a job $1,000 a week to mow it? You would then probably spend the rest of your time relaxing and playing around. Now I apologize for the crudeness of this analogy, but I think it shows what happens with the government. They get more money than they need (truly they do), but all the politicians have friends who’s businesses need work (hence the inclusion of money going to wooden arrow makers and ect, in their bills), have friends or supporters who have agenda’s like global warming, or PEDA, so they give them money, or jobs. The government usually doesn’t care who can best use the money they need to spend, and why should they, it’s not their hard earned money.

You know thinking about this I remember in history when a people revolted for much lower taxation than we are taxed now (percentage wise), and when they got their own way, and created a brand new country, 200 years later that country became the richest and most powerful country in the world, where literally everyone who was poor wanted to come and try at a new start for their lives. The values that made this country great, are now being trampled on the floor because of some people’s great ideas, ideas that are unrealistic, unreasonable, harmful, and just plain go against the facts of history.

I fear that until we as a people get back to the value of personal responsibility instead of thinking we are owed something by the government or others, until we get back to the value of hard work and personally success, until we get back to the value of personal freedom and liberty, and until we get back to the values this country was founded upon, I fear we will continue to destroy this country for which our forefathers sweat, bled, and died for. For us as rich, fat, free, satiated American people it is hard to really value freedom, personal responsibility, capitalism, and entrepreneurs, but for our oppressed, poor, forefathers, it was worth dying for so that we, their children, could have a chance at more happiness than they. I fear that perhaps we will have to suffer more until we actually realize how good we had it, and how worth fighting for it really was, perhaps we will wake up before its too late, I hold not my breath.