Taxes

I am thirty now. Allow me to put on the white belt, white shoes and the sansabelt pants to complain about the gubment. I am fed up with our taxes. I don't mind paying taxes to pay for essential things. Income tax makes sense. Our government needs funds to make the government machine and city/county/state/federal infrastructure run properly. I am ok with that.

Here is what I see as a problem...
1. We pay taxes on items that should not be taxed once we own. For instance. Cars and boats. You purchase and pay sales tax... fine. You own and pay property tax... well I can live with a little. You own and put gas in the thing which carries a small highway tax (in some cases). You own and pay a registration fee every year (now every 2 years) to license the car or boat. Do you see my point? Not only do you pay tax to purchase and own, but you pay tax to operate. Why can't this be culled down a bit? We are getting it from every angle. Why do I pay a registration fee? Why can't the registration fee come from the yearly property tax? Same goes for boats. Why do we pay taxes on boats, but not furniture, appliances, pets, and computers?

2. Income tax is a fine thing. We can live with it. We get taxed every time we get paid. OK, fine tax me enough for the government essentials (roads, state buildings, etc.) We put our money (income) into investments, living expenses, cars, luxeries, savings, etc. But when we croak and leave our estate to our kids, we get taxed again. Why? It does not makes sense. What politian proposed this idea while others sat around rubbing their chins thinking "good idea"? Keep in mind that typically your politians are folks like us who have some sort of estate (more significant is most cases). Why would you want to enact a law/policy that you would not think is fair? Down with Estate tax!!!!

3. Graduated tax system. I think this is bunk. So what if you make more money? You should only be taxed a certain percentage. A 44% tax is way too unreasonable. A flat tax system is very reasonable. "But that means that the wealthy get a break", whines the weenie. Hooey! The wealthy will still be paying more money than us schlubs. Flat tax makes sense (or at least a variation of it). The more money that is left in the hands of the people, the more money that gets spent on goods and services. Goods and services come in the form of cars, boats, furniture, painters, remodelers, etc. The money gets spread around through pure capitalism. If you want a piece of the pie, you must be enterprising enough to know what good or service to offer to the spenders.

Note: I do believe in a welfare system, but the welfare system must work efficiently enough to not create a dependency. Welfare should be like prescription drugs. When you are prescribed a drug to help aid in the healing of a medical problem eventually you recover and you no longer need the drug. Same for welfare. When you get back on your feet (educated, trained, job secured) you don't need government aid any longer. Choice of lifestyle should not dictate need of level of welfare. What about drugs that people need and can't live without? True. This is a reality. We have a segment of our citizens who lack abilities to survive in our capitalist marketplace. These people do need help and should get help in the form of welfare. Luckily our human nature of compassion kicks in and we donate time and money to help these causes.

This is another discussion.