It’s Not Income Inequality – It’s Income Confiscation That Hurts!
Income inequality has become a popular cry for those on the left who want to justify raising taxes. But the real culprit that is hurting American workers is “income confiscation.” That is the taking of the fruits of your labor by the government to pay for programs they think are best for the people.
To get a better understanding, consider this: As a young worker in the 1950’s, the government confiscated 4% of my income. They took 2% to pay for Social Security, and my boss had to match 2% of my wages into Social Security. Today, to cover Social Security and Medicare, they take 15.3%, half from my pay and half from the company I work for. There was no sales tax back then; today it is 7%. So now they are confiscating over 22%. That’s 18% less spendable income today, before I pay income tax!
Young people today are victims of the money being siphoned out of their pay and they have no idea, while many seniors receiving Social Security have to pay income tax on their benefits…even though they already paid income tax on the money when it was earned.
Local governments confiscate more of your money with property taxes. Forty-one states have a state income tax and if you are lucky enough to work in New York City, you have a city income tax, plus your employer has to pay a mass transit tax.
Just about everything you buy includes a built-in tax you never see. In the U.S., companies must pay a 35% corporation tax on earnings. Do they simply take that from their profits and pay the tax? No, they increase the price on their products or services to absorb that tax, so that means the cost is passed on to you, the consumer.
Each passing year governments at all levels are confiscating more and more of your income. No wonder people feel like we are not better off than we used to be. It’s driving some people crazy. Speaking about driving, did you know you pay a federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents on every gallon of gas you buy? Add in the average state gasoline tax and the government is confiscating almost 50 cents on every gallon of gas sold. That is a lot of money.
Meanwhile our federal government continues on its uncontrollable spending habit with the money they confiscated from us, even spending more money than they collect, putting our children and grandchildren into 18 trillion dollars of debt.
We have got to cut taxes, cancel programs that do not work, root out the fraud in all the government programs and eliminate wasteful spending. And the way to get our free economy moving again is to stop confiscating our income!