I don’t usually pass on forwards, but I loved this one! It actually caused an uproar between me and my wife’s aunt, who I don’t know that well. For laughs after the forward I will post our conversation!
Tax Poem:
Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table At which he’s fed.
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes Are the rule.
Tax his work, Tax his pay, He works for peanuts Anyway!
Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat.
Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he Tries to think.
Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries Tax his tears.
Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways To tax his ass.
Tax all he has Then let him know That you won’t be done Till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers, Then tax him more, Tax him till He’s good and sore.
Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in Which he’s laid.
Put these words upon his tomb, ‘ Taxes drove me to my doom…’
When he’s gone, Do not relax, It’s time to apply The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Privilege Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Use Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids. What in the hell happened? Can you spell ‘politicians!’ And I still have to ‘press 1’ for English!?!?!? !?
My Conversation with the Aunt about the Tax Poem and Health Care Reform:
Aunt:
- I don’t know if Fair Tax is a good idea or not but I really don’t see how we’d be able to make any major change like that considering we can’t even have a civil discussion on health care reform. I could only imagine how crazy people would be trying to change anything else.
Me:
- While it is up in the air whether a fair tax is appropriate or not, I do know that the gov’t as the largest health insurer IS NOT a good idea.
- Cut all the taxes and let me live my life!
Aunt:
- Well, when you purchase your own health insurance as I do, you find the cost is quite prohibative. Why wouldn’t it be a good idea for a public option to cause healthy competition between the insurance companies and force them to drive down costs? How else will that happen if we don’t have a public option? Millions have lost their jobs in the past two years and their insurance ends unless they can afford to pay the cobra. If they had any preexisting condition, new companies won’t carry them. It has been proven that the way things are now it is not economically sustainable. Unfortunately, we are all in this together and we need a workable solution because financially this affects everyone.
Me:
- I am positive we are on ideological opposites when it comes to this issue, but I will respond to each point (my points are indented further):
- “Well, when you purchase your own health insurance as I do, you find the cost is quite prohibitive.”
- The cost will be just be shifted from your leisure dollars to your taxes. I wasn’t born yet, but I hear of the stories of yesteryear before the ERGTA of 81 where income taxes where the highest marginal tax rate was over 70%. If I am not mistaken (and I hope I am not cause that would be embarrassing) you own a small business you don’t think you are going to start getting killed in taxes? Do you have employees? what about being FORCED to pay for their health care too?
- “why wouldn’t it be a good idea for a public option to cause healthy competition between the insurance companies and force them to drive down costs?”
- The gov’t getting involved is the exact opposite definition of HEALTHY competition. The fact that the gov’t is involved inherently means there is something wrong.
- “How else will that happen if we don’t have a public option?”
- How about interstate competition which has thus far been denied?
- ” Millions have lost their jobs in the past two years and their insurance ends unless they can afford to pay the cobra. If they had any preexisting condition, new companies won’t carry them.”
- I am not sure about other states represented on this email, but NY in group coverage doesn’t disallow preexisting conditions for new employees.
- ” It has been proven that the way things are now it is not economically sustainable.”
- The system being proposed is basically a bigger medicaid system – and I think WE can ALL agree that is the epitome (originally spelled epidomy) of an economically unsustainable system.
- “Unfortunately, we are all in this together and we need a workable solution because financially this affects everyone.”
- I think our problem is we disagree on what workable means. Taxing me to death, so someone in Nevada who doesn’t work can have health care is not my idea of just or fair….however, I think that is your definition so I am pretty sure we are going to have to agree to disagree.
- “Well, when you purchase your own health insurance as I do, you find the cost is quite prohibitive.”
While I can agree with you the system could use help, I have an ideological stance against the gov’t getting involved in my day to day life any more than it already is lol.
In Marx’s Pamphlet he highlighted “10 Conditions for Transition to Communism”
- Abolition of Property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. – Look up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London
- A heavy progressive or graduated income tax – We have this and it is ONLY going to get worse
- Abolition of all right of inheritance. – At 45% for the top 3% of the country We might as well agree we have this
- Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. – See #1
- Centralization of credit in the hands of the State by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. – Can we say Citigroup?
- Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. – Can we say GM?
- Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. – GM
- Equal liability of all labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. – Might be dated, but didn’t UAW buy 30% of GM?
- Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of distinction between town and country, by a more equal distribution of population over the country. – I can happily argue that the founding fathers would never had imagined a federal government the size of ours in comparison to the local governments
- Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production. – This one is alright
- and PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD do not respond – with a Bush hating comment?
Aunt:
- As they say, elections have consequences. Obama ran on a platform of health care reform including a public option. He said this over and over. He won 53% of the vote. If all goes well he’ll get his way.
On the Wife’s urging I “decided” to let it drop at this point. Would you have?
PLEASE change “epidomy” to “epitome”
you are correct! That’s what I get for using AOL as my main mail account! No built in spell check lol
I’ve found that people in my family that like to engage in these types of discussions aren’t usually interested in facts, or actually trying to find ways to fix the problems. Instead they want to hand everything over to the government to “fix” the problem. They think that if the gov’t gets involved it’ll be more “fair” and “equitable”. Problem is, they don’t sit and consider what usually happens when government gets involved – things get worse. Far from being more competition, the government will heavily subsidize health care and essentially put private insurance out of business. There will be rationing of care. The list of negatives goes on and on.
I’m not sure what the answer to some of our problems is -but I’m pretty sure it isn’t more government involvement. it rarely is.
BMM,
That is my exact point. I can agree the health care system needs “help.” But what kind of help? My political ideology and distrust for large bloated gov’ts prevent me from thinking that this OR ANY administration can run a health care system.
LOOK AT MEDICAID AND MEDICARE!
Freedom can be denied at the business end of a pitchfork, not just by taxes. Don’t forget the power of a wrathful mob of the indigent lower class. I’m not as left thinking as I was in college, but still I recognize that a large disparity in wealth between classes represents a danger to liberty for everyone. The wealth divide is growing, and the backlash at AIG was a symptom.
If people are unable to lawfully gain access to what are assumed to be basic services (health care), then they will probably attempt to obtain the requirements for said services (money) through whatever means possible (crime). The result of this could be bigger government (police state) and less liberty for everyone (Orwell, 1984) or it might end up as another populist socialist revolution (Russia, 1918) and/or the eradication of the upper class (France, 1789).
In my opinion, People do have access to what can be considered basic health care service. ERs do not turn people away, nor do clinics.
True, but if you have any kind of money to your name, it will likely be eradicated by medical fees, unless you can afford top notch health insurance. The indigent survive unscathed because they had nothing to begin with.
Beyond the currently existing wealth disparity, another gap between classes in our society is slowly developing. This new gap is the ability to live long healthy lives.
If life saving or life prolonging procedures remain expensive (and they look likely to keep increasing in price) and thus inaccessible to the majority of the population, you will have a small elite portion of the population which will likely have an average longevity far in excess of the majority.
Steve Jobs Got a Liver
https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31509368/ns/health-health_care/
I suppose I could get a liver too if I needed, but it would likely bankrupt me and saddle me with debt for the rest of mine or my family’s lives.
“True, but if you have any kind of money to your name, it will likely be eradicated by medical fees, unless you can afford top notch health insurance.”
Or you CHOOSE to work at a job that provides health insurance. From what I have read Starbucks provides amazing health insurance to full time employees, that should be taken into account rather than just an end hourly wage, but people don’t do that. Alternatively, if your job fails to provide that coverage you should subtract it from your yearly salary to understand the true cost of working there.
Great Example is the Father in Law (this blog is anonymous so I’ll talk about him for a second) – He left a corporate sales job, where he had FULL medical coverage to start his own firm selling the exact same product. For the past 20 years or so he has made TONS more but bitches about health care costs. When in fact he should be subtracting the cost of insurance to see if his TONS was actually like a bit more.
We all make choices where to work, and health insurance should be factored into that choice. With ALL that being said, if a public option comes to existance we are going to KILL private insurance industry. So at best, we waste my tax dollars (akin to Obama’s comparing the system to the USPS…awesome job by the way) and at worst we are killing an entire protection industry and forcing the gov’t even deeper down my throat.
I get what you are saying, trust me, I’m not really in favor of bigger government, but I do believe balance is necessary to provide a lasting solution.
I’ll end my side of this back-and-forth with one last anecdote. Keep in mind, I do have health insurance, and it happens to be with a top rated provider.
Recently, a friend of mine and I were talking about random stuff and the topic turned to cancer for some reason, and how it would suck to be one of those people who randomly find out they have late-stage cancer and die a few weeks later.
He mentioned how he wasn’t super worried about that since he gets annual MRI screenings just to check for anything random. He asks me, “you don’t get MRI’s? Doesn’t your health insurance cover that?”. “No, it doesn’t”, I said. It should be noted that their family business makes millions and provides a top level insurance plan. I utilize a plan offered by the university.
It was hard for me to swallow my laugh during our conversation, because it pointed out one of the problems in our country. The people with money and great health insurance don’t really understand how everybody else lives, and what they live without.
Should we provide these high end services for them? Do they deserve it? Unfortunately, these are questions that should be tackled by philosophers, and the reality is, they will be answered by special interest groups and the trail of money they leave.
WOW! I love this entire blog (so far) . I have been through 5 or 6 pages now. This is a great resource that should be read by more people (no idea how many readers you have currently) but by the state of personal finances more should read it. Now on this post I find it strange how so many people do immediately want let the Government make everything better. I was raised to believe that the U.S. was a place where if you worked hard you anyone has a chance to make something of themselves. More and more it seems that we have become a society of deserving citizens instead of hard workers.
It is liberals who believe so devoutly in evolution which in turn equals survival of the fittest; but they don’t want anyone to go without what they feel is a right. At what point is something not a given right and should be left up to the person to earn themselves? It seems like a slippery slope…the list of taxes above have someone on the other side receiving the benefit. That benefit is then demanded to always be provided and cannot be retracted due to the people’s dependence on them.
Glad I found a new fan! Larger gov’t is rarely the answer!