Posted on 05/03/2005 12:39:32 PM PDT by Reaganghost
I don't blame people for the "sump'n fer nut'n" attitude. The environment we live in makes it easy to forget what we get. If I fly cross country, I never see the air traffic controllers making sure I'm safe. When I buy a burger I don't see the guys inspecting meat. A lot of the stuff the gov't does is invisible to us. We don't think about it, but we assume the intended results.
Thanks for the ping. I sent Rush an attachment for our last thread. Hope this shakes things up.
Taxation with this type of representation is NOT FREEDOM.
Not many years ago I was paying $20,000 in property taxes on just two houses in New Jersey. Moved to Pennsylvania, nice 4-br house, taxes under $400 a year.
I could laugh myself to sleep every night.
Seriously, have you ever considered retiring overseas?
Try Rush's brother too. I saw a Freeper creation a few years ago make it Rush via his brother.
Durasell is a government employee. He/she is a triple agent. We call him/her 007 trillion. He/she is faster than a tax increase, is able to leap deep tax cuts in a single bound, has no fear of a congressional investigation and can bust any budget with the stroke of a pen.
FYI Ping!
Good night nurse!!!
I'll not complain about my piddly $3900 then!
Oh. If you want off the ping list, FReepmail me. I don't mind removing undesirables. :) HA!
lol
You have a point. Maybe *the* point, but it's difficult to prove a negative - Civilization isn't the norm but how many people really know that, this is why our level of "poverty" as officially described is at some level almost comical relative to certain locales. Obesity, 2 cars and a roof over your head w/ Nintendo, stereo, radio and microwave, gas oven ,washer and dryer, cell phone or land line, internet access, etc., You kiddin' me?
Politicians have done well with emphasising self-ownership and entrepeneurial incentives. If you choke out the small business owner, any country is hurting. When I was in the army not that long ago living conditions were a step *up* for a few citizens. "Oh, Sarge treats us just fine, lets us sleep in till 5 o'clock".
:)
Guessing at state, and local (given the total tax dollars) tax rates, and knowing the federal tax structure, one could compute your gross income over those years. (Without knowing all of the deductions) (Within a few thousand dollars)
OK, call me paranoid.
;^)
5.56mm
Thanks for the ping! I'd ping the list but I'm on remote this week.
There seems to be a lot of support for the Value added tax, which might have some merit. The only thing I'd be leery of is the possible end to the cash system as a way of monitoring compliance. That would be even worse than we have now as there would be an ability by government to record and control every transaction that's made.
Answer: No.
There are legitimate functions for government. Socialism constitutes 60% of government spending leaving 40% for those functions that are defensibly legitimate. Our armed forces are superb. You are naive if you believe most of the other functions you list are of excellent quality and intellectually challenged if you don't realize that many of the things that function acceptably are in spite of government meddling. I would add that it is questionable whether government has any defensible role with regard to the economy.
I bitch and moan as much as the next guy about inefficiency of some public agencies, but:
A)At least we have those agencies and the knowledge that they'll do their jobs most of the time.
B)I know that nobody is going to come to get me in the middle of the night because I wrote an angry letter to my local paper about cracked sidewalks and a stop sign obscured by foliage.
I'm expecting that book of yours to be in my mailbox any day now.
The property taxes are on income producing rental properties; the balance are capital gains and a fully taxable retirement annuity.
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