So I was walking to work today and said "Morning" to the man cleaning windows of our theater building. Then I started thinking, "how fair does he think his wage is?" Granted I do not know at all how much he gets paid but I started to play a scenario out in my head:
So I run a company that has over a thousand people working for me and I run across one of our window cleaners. I begin to wonder if his wage pays all of his bills and he can manage his life just fine. So I invite him into my office and we sit down and try to brainstorm what I can do for him. I start to explain that there is a hierarchy of wages in the company and it is there because certain people went through years of school (and had to pay for those years) to acquire skills that were in higher demand than those of someone who cleans windows. Obviously he wouldn't just be cleaning windows because that doesn't take all day and he must do other custodial things within the company's building.
Where does this leave him then? I can't create a perfect scenario of me running a company because I wouldn't know all the figures. But, I knew I couldn't justify a raise of his work if all he did was clean. The pool of unemployment is too large; there's too many people that are willing to clean windows.
I proceeded to go on a tangent and imagine everyone making the same amount. Even if it was a small amount, all of our living expenses would be taken care of. We would be granted things equally. There could be no special treatment. Right now, I would be fine with that! I wouldn't be in debt or worry about having food. I could live happily with everything taken care of.
But is that enough? Would I be able to spend my leisure time reading the same types of books? Would turning on the TV give me the same sort of laughs or drama and mystery that the show LOST gave me? Would I be able to walk to my computer and watch anything I wanted?
How different would information dissemination be? Some of the most world changing ideas have come out of open source thinking. No monetary profit involved: wikipedia, google, the internet. Each one of these has totally changed the way we think and do things. Eventually Google is doing things for profit but so many of their services are free to the public. But, would I be able to play WoW? Would the game exist? That idea didn't just come out of wanting people to have fun but also to make money off their intellectual property.
Would I be driving my childhood dream car, a Dodge Stealth? Ford didn't come out with his first car just to improve human life. There was a profit motive. Why the hell do we need this profit motive? To afford the things that people create and provide us with. Socialism can't do that for us. People won't be driven to create a sports car or a multi-million player video game. Why you might ask?
Because a socialist government wouldn't think it to me prudent. Why waste the people's resources on that which doesn't support necessary survival? Socialism planners are to think big and long term. These are but whims of our human wants. I decided I couldn't live in a world like that. Where the human mind ISN'T challenged to its full potential; to one up the next person. It's human nature, you can't control it without shackling it and throwing away the key. You can only provide it with a release!
Now, my main goal isn't to rant about socialism. I don't think it is an impending doom that will happen any time soon. But my mind did make the easy transition from socialism back to my original scenario with the window cleaner. The government wants to help those out that haven't been able to afford their own housing or keep up with their car payment or just simply have food. The government does this on our dime.
The principle: taxing anyone, no matter how much they make. With a principle you can't add a footnote that says, well if this person makes this much... No, it's an arbitrary number, it can always be changed. The current system has a funny take on this principle, mainly none. We have a vicious progressive tax system that puts people in categories based on how much they earn. This is a system more designed for: socialism. In a socialist society if people made different amounts of money you would have to make it equal by taxing higher wage earners by a different ratio. But why tax them till you bring them down to their fellow brothers who make less than they do but pay less in taxes? Why not just pay them equally.
So you see, this is why the progressive tax system has no principles and has no place in any form of government or economy. It doesn't have a true moral basis. Morals are based on principles or they aren't morals at all but the whims of men, easily changed to meet their wants and "needs".
I've come to a rather weak conclusion. The tax system is immoral and unjust. There is NO fairness in it. Even those making under $25,000 a year find it hard to watch their paycheck shrink from the taxes being taken out. When our society is built upon the greatest of the human mind to grant our wants and needs, I find it disgusting that our government is so ready to start tearing the very fabric apart through taxes. The government is so bloated and corrupt. Our military stretches its fingers way beyond the mandate of protecting the American people. Our drug laws and foreign aid send money where it shouldn't and doesn't help other countries. Where both the republicans and the democrats have so blinded you into thinking that by paying your taxes you are helping others in society, have you ever stopped to think: Will I finally succumb to financial burden and become one who recieves benefits because I can't lift myself back up again? In this false world of morals the government has created, it keeps the low wage earners down and wreaks havoc on those already standing upright.
So many of you think it's the large corporations fault. Yes, they have a large part of the blame when you look at how easily they can corrupt our elected officials. But it isn't rape if you don't say no, which is what those elected officials are not doing. So many government agencies are created and bloated every year; sucking up your tax dollars like they are the newest Dyson on the market. Stop believing the issues the democrats and republicans say they stand for! No one can stand on Capitol Hill with a straight face and say: I want to improve America by creating universal healthcare and reforming social security!
Any sane person would laugh themselves to tears. You are working inside a system you refuse to believe is broken! There is no 1,000 page legislation to fix the government! A bonfire at the steps of the Capitol building with current legislation being tossed in by the truck load is the only way to start making a change, a difference, something people can actually hope and believe in.
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