WORTH A THOUGHT

The percent of people paying NO taxes in America is nearly 50% (47%). Yet, they partake in roads, bridges, buildings, and other infrastructures along with benefits of having police, military, schools, public safety, and other government programs and services. The list goes on. It’s bad enough that only 50% of us are paying for the other 50%. To me though, there is something worse. These people also vote.

Who do they vote for? They vote for politicians and the party which keeps taxing those who pay taxes so as to redistribute the money to those who don’t pay taxes. During the discourse of debt and tax debate, of course these people are for higher taxes. Other people pay the taxes and they reap the benefits!! It’s quite possible that 50% of those entering a voting booth pay no taxes, and they vote for people who will raise taxes on the “rich” so as to enrich their government benefits.

We now have a system in which the top 25% of wage earners pay 86% of the income taxes. The upper 50% pay 97% of the taxes while the top 1% pays 39% of the taxes (In contrast to 1980, the top 1% paid 19% of the taxes). Again, that leaves 47% who pay no income taxes. The top earners keep paying more and we keep paying more, while the rest pay none of the tax burden.

Not only are the taxpayers tired of being targeted for everyone’s government and personal wish list, but I can imagine that the top earners are becoming a bit resentful of having to pay for everyone else. I must say that I’d like to be one of the top earners to see if I’d become resentful too!! Anyway, meanwhile, many politicians play on our natural human tendency toward envy, greed, and covetousness as they maintain the constant chorus to go after the “rich.” In reality, it’s the non-taxpayers going after the taxpayers again and again.

When this country reaches the point where over half the voters don’t pay taxes, which we are currently perilously close to right now, we will be on a fast track to follow the Roman Empire. A taxpaying minority can’t sustain the rest of a population for very long. Yet, that is exactly what will happen if we don’t stop the political class warfare. If the tax burden isn’t more widely shared and more evenly distributed, combined with cutting our expenses, we will be such a top heavy taxed society that we will topple.

Non taxpaying citizens must stop voting for politicians who continuously promise them more and more program and service benefits. It is sooooooooo self-serving to vote yourself benefits that others have to pay for. Besides the ethical and moral question it raises, with an aging population and fewer younger taxpayers, we are reaching an untenable position. Just think of how it would change who occupies the Whitehouse and the composition of Congress if only taxpayers voted. It would revolutionize the country and the scope of government. It’s worth a thought…