25 August, 2008

Drawn at the Victorville Starbucks (!!).

I know there's a lot of election stuff going on right now, and this site's delicate persona is ill suited to political rhetoric (tho' it may spice up the comments). But I heard some talk about taxes the other day and a phrase stuck with me, "a tax code that rewards work instead of wealth."

Maybe some people would doubt the truth of this statement, maybe some others would believe it as an article of faith, both biased one way or the other by their opinion of the candidate who uttered it. But whatever their political rooting interests, they might be curious if experience would bear this statement out.

Well I've earned wages, and I've been "wealthy." And there is no comparison between the two levels of taxation--when I went back to earning a corporate paycheck a couple years ago, I was astonished by the difference. I'd gotten used to living in the other system, the wealth system, where you make (nearly) free money (income from stocks, other investments, etc. receiving a very low tax rate). My first paycheck was a shock. After payroll, state and federal taxes, health care, etc., I was left with less than 50% of my wages. I'm not complaining about the tax rate on wages per se, I just want to point out the disparity is real (and it feels very unfair-- un-American, even). Whatever your political bent, the fact is the difference is big--two or three times as much tax when earning wages, depending on yr income level.

Whether one tax needs to be raised or the other lowered is a different debate. For now just fIle this under "for what it's worth."

2 comments:

Rickart said...

If you tax all of those wealthy folks then who's going to create all of those jobs for the folks who need to be paying taxes so the wealthy don't have to?

Thoughtful, well executed and to the point opinion... just like your drawings! :)

Mr Goodson said...

I hope you don't resent that I'm a trust fund baby. i just work for the hell of it.

Nice drawing, as usual. i got you WallE cimematics disc. Tropic Thunder with Ranjo and I'll perform a hand off