Brutally Honest Rant - 03/21/07

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Taxation and “Fairness”
Audio Transcripts
03/21/07

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – “American Idiot Remix” – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Last week I started off on my look at America’s failing tax system, and the number one thing that literally KILLS any discussion on reforming that dysfunctional, schizophrenic system. For those of you who listened – or read the transcripts – I seriously hope that I gave you folks something to think about, because like I said, we can’t even discuss fixing the system if we first cannot get past our own wealth envy. It is the reason why our system got to be screwed up, and it is why we are headed for some SERIOUS troubles in the next decade if we don’t act now to replace the system with one that works for us all.

This week, I’m going to go ahead and continue with that train of thought as we look at the issue of “fairness” in the tax system.

Now “fairness” is one of those vague subjective terms that gets thrown about and abused. It’s like other any other subjective word like “decency” or “obscenity” or “beauty” or “rich”. Its definition is pretty much in the eye of the beholder.

For most of us, we define “fair” as being right down the middle, everything equal. We think that a “fair” judge or a “fair” referee is someone who should be impartial, unbiased, and able to call the shots as they happen, no matter who wins.

The problem is that there is no such thing as being truly impartial or unbiased. We all have our own little biases. Our very sense of what is right and what is wrong is in and of itself a bias. Thus our definition of “fair” is manipulated by our biases.

We believe that the good guys should always win, so we’ll ignore those instances when police officers abuse the law, believing that the bad guys “deserve” whatever they get. We’ll ignore rampant corruption and abuses of power from our favorite politicians, but we’ll be the first ones to cry out against such activities on anyone else. We will blindly refuse to accept any kind of faults with our religious dogmas, believing OURS to be infallible, while calling to question even the smallest of inaccuracies for any other belief.

We literally hypocritize ourselves… knowingly, willingly, and with complete disregard of the consequences. And then we have the audacity to call that being “fair”.

Now let’s put that in the context of taxation, the method by which we fund our governments large and small.

The first thing that needs to be pointed out here is that we pretty much have a SUBJECTIVE tax system. This is contrary to any other element in our government, which is supposed to present EQUAL treatment. Remember that whole bit in the Declaration of Independence about ALL men being created equal? Well we didn’t really practice what we preached at the time, but we eventually changed that. In fact, we’ve gone against our own people to fight for equal treatment in the courts, equal treatment in society, equal treatment in voting… but NOT for equal treatment when it comes to taxation. We do not tax people EQUALLY. We tax them according to what we think is “FAIR”.

Two people who make the same amount of money, right to the penny, and with the same amount of cost-of-living expenses, can be taxed differently. One person could pay infinitely MORE in taxes than the other person depending on variable circumstances. One person could make his money through investments. He could own a home instead of renting one.

We have this thing called the Alternative Minimum Tax. It was originally designed to collect money from people who are rich enough to never work for a living, but instead make their money through investments. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to update the numbers for this tax to take effect, and those numbers were written back in 1970. So as it is right now, if you own a few shares of stock and you sell them, then the IRS could declare you a “rich person” and throw you into the AMT. You can even get lumped into the AMT simply by getting married to someone who works for a living if your combined income is high enough. And what this means is yet ANOTHER layer of complex paperwork for you to fill out, and without many of the normal deductions that you would normally take for granted. This tax has literally caused untold couples and families to go into bankruptcy, and has even resulted in several people committing suicide.

Is that right? No.

But according to the supporters of the status quo, that difference is considered “fair”.

There are those who don’t pay ANY taxes, and yet they wield a disproportionate amount of political influence in America. I’m talking about religious leaders. Men, and some women, who are richer than most of their followers, and yet they pay no taxes. They wield enough political influence to get laws written to tell US how to live our lives, even if we’re not followers of their belief, and yet they don’t pay the political admission price like the rest of us have to.

Is that right? Absolutely not.

And yet that too is considered “fair”.

We have a tax system that actually PENALIZES success. The more money that you make under our current system means that you have to pay even MORE in taxes! And why is that, you ask? Well, according to the supporters of the status quo… it’s because you can afford to pay it!

Now let’s frame this in a way that you can understand. Suppose you were to go to McDonald’s to buy one of those $1.00 cheeseburgers that they like to talk about. But you then find out that when you’re ordering your food, you have to tell the cashier how much money you make per year. You place your order and you tell the cashier how much money you make and the cashier tells you that this $1.00 cheeseburger now costs you $10! You’re outraged and you ask why you’re being charged ten times as much when the two other people in front of you only had to pay $1.00 for their cheeseburgers. And she says, “Well, those other two barely make more than $20,000 a year. YOU, on the other hand, make $50,000 a year. You make a lot more than they do, therefore you can AFFORD to pay more for that same cheeseburger!”

Now is that right? Is it right to be FORCED to pay more simply because you can AFFORD to pay for it? Unequivocally not!

And yet, according to the ardent defenders of the status quo, including the current and past occupants of the White House, this too is considered absolutely “fair”. According to them, you SHOULD pay more in taxes if you can afford to.

Meanwhile, of course, there seems to be an endless stream of exceptions and deductions and tax “credits” being meted out to various people for various reasons. If you’re poor, you don’t have to worry about some of the taxes. If you’re rich, you don’t have to worry about some of the taxes. If you have children, you don’t have to worry about some of the taxes. If you give to certain charities, you don’t have to worry about some of the taxes. If you own a home instead of rent one, you don’t have to worry about some of the taxes.

But nobody wants to ask who has to make up the difference for all of these little “favors”. Who picks up the burden? The rest of us do! The middle class does. People, like me, who are essentially not represented in government, who can’t claim any of those deductions or exceptions or exemptions, and who are forced to pay more and more of the tax burden. Why? Simply because we can AFFORD to pay it!

Meanwhile we have rampant spending in government. We have promises being made on our behalf that simply CANNOT be met because they call for more money than we can ever collect.

Is that right? No, but our defenders of the status quo will tell you that it is “fair”.

Well, obviously it is not “fair” for you if you’re the one left holding the bag, but it is certainly “fair” for the corrupt politicians because they get another term in office because of it. It is also certainly “fair” to those people who vote for those corrupt politicians because of it; because that’s less money that they have to worry about. As for you? Well, I guess it sucks to be you, doesn’t it?

Let’s get brutally honest here… America is being run on a tax system that is not only hemorrhaging itself into bankruptcy, but it is set up on a subjective method that is contrary to the very principles that this country is supposed to represent!

If we were to implement this demented, subjective, “FAIR” system into any other aspect of social interaction, we would be accused of blatant discrimination! There would be marches in the streets, there would be marches in Washington, there would be outright riots over this kind of discrimination! But because it plays on our wealth envy, and it is completely sold on the asinine idea that RICH people should suffer the consequences of being successful in life, then somehow, that’s okay.

Well it’s NOT okay! We are getting screwed over because of it, and if we don’t do something about it… if we don’t change this system and replace it with one that works… then we will ALL be in a situation that will not be “fair” for ANYONE inside the United States, rich or poor.

We need to replace this system with one where EVERYONE pays taxes, and pays those taxes EQUALLY, regardless of how much they make. A tax system set up WITHOUT exceptions, WITHOUT exemptions, and WITHOUT deductions. A tax system that cannot be easily manipulated by the politicians and their friends in the special interest groups. A tax system that would be so simple to understand that it can be easily taught in government schools.

These kinds of tax systems DO exist. We just have to want them bad enough to demand that government make it happen. But we had damn well better act soon, because if we don’t, then we’ll be stuck with a tax system that none of us will like in the very least, and one that we will not be able to get out of anytime soon.

(Computer – some relevant stuff… but as always, you gotta tune in to appreciate them)
(Fade Music In – “The Passportal” by Team Sleep)

Back during the American Revolution there was a handy little slogan that said “No taxation without representation”. It was to represent the fact that the American Colonies were getting screwed over in taxes by Great Britain without anyone in the government to speak on their behalf.

Well fast forward 230 years and we have both taxation and we have representation. But the problem is that those who are GETTING taxed have very little of that representation, while those who pay very little in taxes seem to get way too much representation.

Doesn’t that sound a little like history repeating itself? I would hope that wouldn’t be the case, because I’d like to think that we can resolve this problem before it ever gets that far.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production; all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/“End of Recording”)

[End of program]
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