Conservatives like to say “a conservative is just a liberal who has yet to be mugged by reality.” Well if I wasn’t a conservative before Monday (Don’t worry, I was), I sure as hell am now! I got a little dose of reality when I got my first substantial paycheck. And by little, I mean 33%.
That’s right folks! I got 33% of my pay hocked by the government in taxes. I worked 11 hours a day for 8 days straight (including Saturday & Sunday) in a contract job in Manhattan. To save money, I slept on my grandmother’s air mattress and rode the subway to work. From 8:00am to 7:30pm it was boring, tedious work that required a modicum of brain activity, but the pay was good enough to be worth it all. I was so excited when I was done because I expected to get a nice fat paycheck that’ll pay off my credit card bill in one fell swoop. Instead, I got a rude awakening when the check finally came in on Monday.
When I saw just how much the city and state of New York and the Feds took, I lost it. Flailing wildly into the air, cursing the IRS, I was like the WoW Freak Out Kid (sans shoving anything anywhere on my person). Why? More than TWO FULL DAYS were dedicated to paying my taxes on this check! It was money I could’ve used to pay the rest of my credit card off. It was money I could’ve used to pay down on my student loans (Right, Obama?!). HELL, it was money I could use to purchase consumer goods and STIMULATE THE ECONOMY (Right, Krugman?!)!
Everyone keeps telling me, “Welcome to reality, Sam,” and they shrug their shoulders, as though this is how things are and always will be. To hell with that! I’m not ready to be complacent and simply sigh as a bloated, incompetent, and inefficient state and federal government takes my hard-earned money and forces me to hope and pray I see some of that back when I file my W-2. I refuse to allow liberals to get away with saying we need more taxes in this country. I refuse to allow them to claim they care about graduates needing good jobs while chunks of their hard-earned cash go toward Shrimp exercises and Harry Reid’s Cowboy Poetry. Don’t come and tell me that my money is being spent for our basic needs from government while these programs still exist.
The GOP candidates need to hit Obama hard on this. I was already against high taxes, but when the knife hits you in your side, you’re a lot more motivated to fight back.
Now add a “Like” or “+1″ button so I can show my approval of such a great article on a service that does not make me want to stab my eyes out.
HEY…Just be thankful you don’t have to use what’s left of your paycheck for state/local taxes, sales taxes, service taxes, permits, fees and licenses.
I feel your pain friend! I worked 2 full time jobs a few years ago and had close to 17,000 in total stolen from me then the following year I worked 12 hour days all summer long paid about 10K then owed another 700 bucks to feds and 100 to state. I’m am tired of people saying hey that’s the way it is! It’s not this has to be the generation to stand up to tyrants in DC get them out of office and take the Republic back!
Gotta start cutting the socialism out of the government (Medicaid, Social Security) if we’re ever gonna get to keep what we earn…it’s that simple. We also gotta be ready to help our neighbors out on a personal level if we cut those programs.
It really doesn’t matter too much though – if we don’t take control and do it now, the problem will take care of itself within a few years when our government collapses and there simply isn’t any more medicaid/ss.
Nobody understands the pain of taxes like contractors. You work your butt off for a (hopefully) short period of time for a big payday which may be the bulk of what you earn for the year, and you get to watch a sizable chunk of it vanish before you ever see it.
Which, to head off various strawmen with the face of Elizabeth Warren, is not to say taxes aren’t necessary, but damn. At least give us value for our money!
Couldn’t have said it better.