I am going to attempt to be as non-partisan as I can on this particular subject. Because I do think it is a problem on both sides of the aisle. At the same time, I do believe one side has more honest brokers on how to deal with the issues. And I won’t be wishy washy on which side that is.
Our government has a major spending problem and both the republicans and democrats are part of the problem with this. Our resources are not infinite. Nothing is. As to quote the great ecumenist Thomas Sowell, “There are no solutions, just tradeoffs.” Mr. Sowell is dead on with his quote. When you decide to do one thing. It means you can’t do another.
The government doesn’t produce anything. Let me say it again. The government doesn’t produce anything on its own. All of the money the government spends comes from tax payers. Period. So when a politician says the government is going to do this or that. It is not the government. The government is taking from one group of people to give to another group of people. Period.
The government can raise money three ways.
- Taxes: Which is their number one revenue source. This comes in many forms.
- Borrow money
- Print money
All three of these things are not good for the middle class for many reasons and I will share a few.
First of all when it comes to taxes. Roughly half of the citizens in the United States pay taxes and half pay 97.7 percent of all the taxes collected. That means in a country of 330 million or so, only 165 million are paying some form of federal taxes. The top 1% of income earners paid 42.3 percent of all federal taxes in the year.
If you want to learn more about who pays what and how much in taxes go here .
Some want to argue about the specifics of these stats, but there is nothing to argue here. The people who get up everyday and go earn a living pay the most taxes.
A W2 employee working a job, pays the highest amount of taxes in America. The reason this is because the tax code is set up to benefit people who create jobs or people who are investors. This isn’t inherently a bad thing. Well, the fact that W2 employees pay so much in taxes is a bad thing. But the fact that the tax code is set up to benefit entrepreneurs and investors is not.
52% of our Americas budget is spent on entitlement payments. Entitlement Programs of the federal government include Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, and welfare programs.
Neither side of the aisle will address these entitlement programs because it would hurt their ability to get re-elected.
And POLITICIANS are not in the business to solve any problems. They are in the business of POLITICS. Which means their number one goal is to get re-elected.
Why would they address entitlements, they want to get re-elected. So the middle class will continue to have their taxes increased because politicians won’t do anything.
When the country borrows money they must pay it back with interest. Who pays for this? Well, it comes in a form of increased taxes. Where else can the money come from. The government doesn’t produce anything. Once again, the people who pay the highest taxes will continue to pay high taxes because the government has to pay back the money they borrow.
Lastly, when it comes to printing money. We all know what happens when the government does this. We are living through it as we speak. When the government prints money, it puts more money in to the economy. This is done through stimulus programs, entitlements, etc. This then creates more money chasing fewer goods and services. Which there is more money chasing fewer goods and services. Prices go up. This is basic supply and demand law that you learned in middle school most likely.
Who pays for this? The middle class. Prices go up, doesn’t mean wages go up. So the people who now have to operate the economy or paying higher prices for their goods and services.
For example: The government has doubled the amount of recipients that are eligible for the SNAP program.
What is the SNAP program: SNAP provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health and well-being.
Now you can say that well, this is a good thing for people right? I guess. But I would rather see the government help these people get better skills, so they can get better jobs, and earn better incomes so they can afford their own food and pay their fair share in taxes.
My point in mentioned the SNAP program though is to make the point that when the government doubles the amount of recipients of the SNAP program. You now have more money chasing fewer goods and services. In this case the goods are groceries. And we didn’t double the amount of supply of food. But we doubled the amount of money wanting the food (good). This makes prices go up. It isn’t nay harder than that.
So who gets screwed in this scenario? The middle class that doesn’t qualify for the SNAP program. They are taxed even more. Even though it isn’t an actual tax per se. It is an increase in the amount of money they have to pay. And the government is the one that caused it.
The current housing market is another example. When we increased the amount of money in circulation. We now have more money chasing fewer homes which caused prices to go up. And on top of it. The government now knows that they screwed up by printing so much money during the COVID experiment, which made inflation go through the roof, and now home buyers are having to pay higher mortgage prices because the government is making it harder and more expensive to borrow money.
The bottom line is the middle class is getting screwed at every turn. They are getting taxed to death already. Now they are getting taxed even more because of higher prices. Which is an additional tax.
As I mentioned both sides of the aisle continues to spend our money like crazy. However, there are a few people in our government that know they must address some of these spending issues. People like Rand Paul a Republican Senator from Kentucky my home state. He gets it.
My advice is this. If you are a W2 employee. You must find ways to limit some of the taxes you are paying. Open a business. Buy some real estate. Find anything and everything that can help lessen your tax burden. This is the only way you can help yourself keep more of your money.
To your success and your future.
Leave a Reply