What Happened to Working Hard and Being Proud Of Your Accomplishments?
74COLOR ME FED UP!!!!!
I am sure that in this country, somewhere, there are young couples fighting to make a go of it without help from Mom or Dad or the government coffers, just as my husband, kids and I did some years not-so-far back.
There was a time when we wrote a thing called a "budget," and this budget in the late 70's included a food budget of $100 for the month. Now, we would translate that to maybe, $300 per month or maybe even $400. But the fact is, when I grocery shopped, before I bought an item that cost more than $1.00, I thought long and hard about it.
I would have loved to dress my children in cute baby clothes, but I am thankful that my mom loved to shop for them or they would have been pretty naked infants. We lived by the rule, if you don't have it, don't spend it. Amen. Most of the time I bought their clothes at discount places and only what we could afford.
Even when we bought our home and things began to go well for us, we stashed money away for our kids college education and for our retirement. We live in California where living expenses are and always have been really high. It took a lot just to get by.
I'm not whining. I'm happy that we worked hard, saved, sent our kids to college without the government loans or grants, and have come to have a comfortable life now in our late 50's.
Our business grew and when Clinton came into office, our taxes went up so that we work each year until mid-June for the IRS and the State of California. Yep, one half of our income. More, when you consider sales tax and local taxes, property tax, and on and on it goes.
We were the kids who didn't get to go to the high school parties and college parties all of the time because we had jobs. We didn't get busted for drugs, hang with the hippies in the Haight in San Francisco because we had jobs. We couldn't go to concerts because our parents would have kicked our asses and we had to work on week ends, anyway.
I loved my life. I still love it. My husband and I did the best we could. Aside from the clothes my parents bought for my babies when they were toddlers, no one gave us anything. No one gave us the down payment for our first house. No one put a trust fund together for our kids' college education. We did it all by ourselves.
And now that we are reasonably comfortable, now that we are in our late 50's, for some crazy reason, we who have tried so hard to make a life for ourselves for so long are considered the "idle rich." I have a problem with the word "rich" especially as it doesn't even compute in California unless you make a million a year or more; consider that a house in the ghetto here sells for $400,000; Obama and my old friend Warren Buffet need to get out more to know what's going on in the rest of the USA.
I'm not sorry and I don't apologize that we've done well with our lives financially. But what I'm not sure that people get is that we already pay 50% in taxes, AND more when you calculate in the alternative minimum tax and the state tax. What is it that the yelling majority want?
How much should you be "allowed" to keep of your own money? Why does the government have a right to tax us to death to begin with? And, my favorite thought about this: the same people who scream about "those rich people who don't pay enough taxes," are the folks who admit straightaway that the government squanders our tax money once they get it; but y'all should give them more anyway! Makes no sense.
I refuse to feel badly because we've worked hard, started with nothing and pay our fair share of taxes....unless you think 50% isn't enough. But I am frustrated. My husband and I have already discussed the tax situation. We've come to a decision; we like our work but we won't work one more day for the government. Early retirement is looking pretty good. Don't think I'm the only one who feels this way, believe me, I am not.
Besides, tell me what my motivation is to work when I could work less, pay less in taxes, take home more on the bottom line and spend my time traveling and partying.?..maybe that's what I should have done in the first place, party!!! Then I could be bitching like my family members who don't remember the 70's, haven't had a job since the 70's and think everyone should pay more to help their children because they certainly can't help 'um get a leg up!
Yep, I'm a bit bitter. I'm not greedy, I'm not rich, I'm way bitter and not willing to play the game anymore.
So, Mr. Obama, you can spread the wealth around to the follks who sit on their asses and whine about being poor. Mr. McCain, I'm not sure what you're about anymore but taxing health benefits in ridiculous...I'm not sure WHO you are anymore, you and the fabulous Ms. P. I just don't know which bible belt whack job beamed you in... And I want to remind everyone that it was Bill Flippin' Clinton who put into play the alternative minimum tax bracket that puts middle class families making now $100,000. into the new bracket! I've been there since day one, and have accepted it...sort of.
But when I'm told I should pay more, I should be ashamed of the life we've built and the comfort zone we are now in, I say, "bite me." Not gonna do it! America is supposed to be the land of opportunity. There is opportunity out there. But be careful; if it's easier to get the same check when you don't work for it as when you work really hard for it...the hard workers go to sleep or leave...how's the USSR doing right now? OOPS, they tried that system and it didn't work.
HIstory is a powerful thing, don't you think?
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HI Madison,
I guess it's the same the whole world over to some extent. I have a fairly philosophical bent on the whole, but I often have to listen to my husband venting in a similar way, not so much about what we do and don't have, but about what others so happily claim from the State without a seconds thought. Welfare is fairly generous here, and there are many who think it is too generous. Of course everything comes at a cost, and that cost is levied through our taxes. Personally I have no desire to see families on the streets, nor anyone else for that matter, so I suspend judgement, but there must be a better way of doing things.
I guess since I was not born in the USA, though I am an American citizen, I am Americanized in almost every way, and can vote, I appreciate everything we have here, even the unfairness, because we can sometimes work around it here. I know what its like for third world countries, the poor are truly poor, and the rich are comfortable, there is no middle class as we have in America, so there isn't as much opportunity for education or saving money. Your rant though, is a valid one, but it got me to thinking.
Violet,
I guess my point is that once you make it to the upper middle class through hard work on your own, you are supposed to have accomplished the "American Dream." But somehow these days, Americans feel that we all should live at a standard of living equal to the upper middle class, whether or not the individual has worked for it. It doesn't seem right to tax those people to death who are already paying 50% as it is! No one ever talks about that; they just lump those people and small businesses who are in that bracket where you might make between $250,000 and $700,000 or so, together with the very rich. In California, $200,000 is not rich; not even enough to buy a house in a nice neighborhood if you're just starting out.
One person even told me, "well, I think I could live pretty damn well on $250,000" and I wanted to say, "Well, then, get a JOB!" God helps those who help themselves. Work hard and you should pay your fair share in taxes for roads, schools, childcare, libraries etc. but I really think it's unfair to say 50% to the government isn't enough. No on ever talks about that, least of all Obama. We are getting way close to a socialist state here. I won't work so that those who make bad decisions or don't have the same skills can live the same as I do. I have other choices and a husband who, although he has health issues, works every day to accomplish what he set out to do. I know others who sit on their asses and bitch about the government and how they can hardly make it.
Life isn't always fair. There are very poor people in the world. However, here in the US, are you really destitute when you live in a place with a roof over your head, a television set, computer, cell phone and plenty of money for booze and drugs? I feel sorry for the kids of the losers but I won't subsidize the parents. I say, feed and educate the kids, get the drug dealers out of the neighborhoods and set down some rules for the parents who choose to put their kids in harms' way. Maybe the next generation will do better and aspire to more. It could happen...
pgrundy 3 years ago
Hi Madison,
I don't blame you for being angry. So many people are angry these days. I heard on the news a few days ago that last year Cindy McCain paid $2 million in taxes on an income for 2007 of $10 million. I said, isn't that 20%? That's way less that we pay! How is that fair?
I think you have a right to be upset. There's nothing in place to actually reward anyone for hard work except the very, very rich---like the top 1/10th o 1% of the country. When the $700 billion bailout was passed, I started to wonder if its even ethical for me to pay taxes. Why not just walkk down to Bank of America and give them 30% of my income? Cuts out the middleman.
We've become the U.S. of FUBAR I'm afraid. Hang in there. I think it's going to get a lot worse before it gets even a little better.
Great rant. I know you have lots of company!