Posted on 11/14/2014 10:01:16 PM PST by Lorianne
More than a decade ago, David Gross was just your typical Bay Area dude. He worked as a technical writer for a software company and made around $100,000.
Then the U.S. invaded Iraq, and Gross had what was probably a pretty typical Bay Area reaction: He didn’t agree with the war. But for Gross, who is now 44, this opposition turned visceral. Even though he was going to anti-war protests and speaking about his opposition to the war publicly, he couldn’t sleep. He had trouble looking at himself in the mirror.
Rather than continue working, Gross embarked on a drastic lifestyle change. He quit his job, and started working as a freelancer, earning enough to make a modest living, but little enough to avoid paying federal income taxes. He now works about 500 hours a year. If he followed a 40-hour work week (which he doesn’t), that would mean he toils about three months out of the year. "It seems that many things people give up to pursue their careers are more valuable than the money they gain in the trade."
Around 43 percent of U.S. households pay no federal income tax, down from 49 percent in 2009, according to the Tax Policy Center. Usually, families don't pay the tax because they haven't earned enough money over the course of the year, and are struggling to pay the bills. Some work all year and still don't earn enough to pay taxes. Gross knows he's lucky to be able to make the choice to earn so little. But it's made his life better, he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
So hippies don’t like paying tax either - surprise, surprise.
Bull Shiite.
His company fired or laid him off and now he preaches his higher moral, synthetic, life.
Guy’s an effin liar.
....so basically this guy is refusing to pay his fair share?
We need to raise his taxes.
if barry quit his job, it would stop the next cold war
In my day folks who opposed the Vietnam war refused to pay some or all of their taxes, risking imprisonment. Say what you may, they walked the walk. This guy is no profile in courage.
“...typical Bay Area dude.”
That alone told me he’s a lying loser.
He would still have to pay taxes on it.
Working for most people is trading a piece of your life for money to live. If someone wants to trade less away and live simpler for whatever reason that's their business. And if someone wants to manage their work so they don't pay any taxes they have every right to do so.
Because then he would have "earned" the money, and would have had to pay taxes to the FedGov. His ultimate purpose was to deny money to the war effort.
Galt paid his own way - and didn't live with his brother, i,e, depend on others who DID work the 9-5 and pay taxes and bills and provide a home...
Want to live frugally, fine, but that shouldn't include sponging off others..while looking in the mirror and seeing what isn't there: a self-sufficient individual. Delusion -
Did not go to the article, but I am betting this guy is freeloading from the taxpayers with EBT, etc.
He sounds self sufficient to me
Interesting ... I have done the exact same thing ...
A lefty going Galt? I thought lefties LOVED to pay taxes. Oh right, he just doesn’t want the war.
If you are “going Galt” because you don’t like how the government is spending tax money, then it’s the same thing imo.
Either way you have people who agree that tax money is not being spent wisely.
then why is he living at this brothers?
Maybe they have some arrangement. Yard and maintenance work in lieu or rent, or maybe the brother travels a lot and wants someone to watch his house while he is gone and take care of pets. Perhaps he pays some rent. The article doesn’t say his brother is supporting him and in fact the guy could afford to have an apartment if he so chose.
It’s between those two.
Of course ‘it’s between’ the brothers.
POINT IS - he relies on someone else to work and provide a house that he can then live in...
and when he gets old and/or ill and can no longer provide even his modicum of ‘self- sufficiency’, and his social sec will be minuscule (He’s ‘saving’ toward retirement” do you really think that will be sufficient?) who pays his medical bills? Who supplements his monthly income?
And do you really believe he eats only from garbage cans? Don’t you even suspicion that just maybe he also gets food stamps?
If you read the article, it explains all of that. He does not depend on anyone. He could afford an apartment on his salary but for whatever reason he lives with his brother. Perhaps he pays him rent ... we don’t know.
It also sounds like he has investments from his high salary days that he is using to carry him in retirement. He probably has more socked away than the majority of American people for his old age. Most people have very little in the way of retirement savings and will be depending on social services when they get old.
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