Esoteric Meandering Shouting Into the Void

Lyle (Silent/Boomer)

We all get a bit tired of paying taxes especially when the taxes are added to taxes such as value added tax on things like tires. Get out your pen and paper and start listing all the things you pay an annual tax on, your house if you are fortunate enough to own one, or at least be making payments on one, ditto on a car, or a recreational vehicle or a boat. If you have livestock even though you may keep them on someone else’s land you will pay a tax for having them, same goes for your dog or cat, I am not sure about exotic pets but I would guess there is a tax on them as well.

   In other countries you can be taxed on the number of doors you have in your home, or the number of windows, how wide your house is and you can be taxed for having a television and the list goes on. So taxes are nothing new and they are not going away any time soon because for the common good we need taxes to be paid to take care of all manner of things that makes life easier and more enjoyable.

   There are things that seem to be exempt from taxes. One is religion as churches are not taxed and the contributions made to churches are supposed to be deductible. Now when this idea was brought forward it  was supposed that by keeping out of church business the community government would be able to function without the church interjecting religion into the social environment without being asked . We currently have churches getting public support without making any public contribution.

   The other item on the agenda of not paying taxes on but costing taxpayer money is guns. This is one item that does not get hit for a tax renewal every year. The 2nd amendment seems to allow for every person regardless of mental ability, temperament, or for any other reason to have a gun or guns. In some states there are no laws about caring those weapons and there is no accountability of these weapons. More effort is made to keep track of a woman who might try to get an abortion than some idiot that might shoot up a school. This is of course do in no small part on the feeling that the fetus has more rights than  a living breathing person and the attitude that we will protect the fetus until the feet hit the ground then it is on it’s own.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

I constantly hear people whining about taxes but neglect to acknowledge that those on the higher end of in oncome scale aren’t paying their fare share. They also seem to have zero idea of the services that their taxes pay for, which I will admit isn’t always clear.

I was told by a co-worker that he honestly felt that there should not be taxes, so I made sarcastic assumptions to highlight a folly of his no tax utopia.

I asked.

If his kids went to private or public school.

If he drove to work on public roads.

If his home had a well or used municipal water.

Did he pay for his own fire, or police just in case of an emergency.

Of course, all the responses were that all the services he used were public offering paid for by taxes. He wanted all the services but did not feel that it was his responsibility to pay into a collective for those services, and unfortunately that is how a lot of people think.

I have said for years that annually a report should be sent to every taxpayer breaking down where their taxes go as a percentage, i.e., school, sanitation, police, fire, prison, etc.. If you disagree with the way your taxes are being allotted file a petition, collect signatures, and get the changes on the next ballot, let the public as a whole decide it is what we call the democratic process, and it requires participation.

The current GOP does not feel that they should participate and are trying to shut the system down if they don’t get their hostage demands met. These are the same politicians that voted against the infrastructure bill but are now going to their home districts and taking credit for the projects they voted against. Again, they don’t want to participate but are willing to pat themselves on the back for the process they actively try to tear down.

For our system of government to function we need 2 parties but when 1 of those parties has no ideas other than burn it to the ground nothing gets done for the people. There has to be a common goal, not everyone is going to agree on how to get there, that’s why we have debates to come to some compromise that will move us in a shared direction.

Ok, that’s my soapbox rant for today.