From: Olga Bourlin (fauxever@sprynet.com)
Date: Sun Jul 07 2002 - 11:16:57 MDT
From: "Samantha Atkins" <samantha@objectent.com>
> Well, my biggest gripe with taxes is that those "teeny slices"
> add up to over 60% of my income! I have a very difficult time
> that believing I should devote 60% of my renumeration to
> purposes chosen by others. There just aren't that many people
> who have a better idea how to spend my money imho.
But, Samantha, different states have different tax laws. Maybe there's a
more acceptable state out there somewhere for you - where you may not have
to pay over 60% of your income. I don't mean to sound simplistic, but I
can't help thinking that you are somewhat condoning whatever is going
tax-wise in the state where you live - simply by living there? (You may not
like to pay 60% of your taxes, but it nevertheless seems to be working out
for you - as you continue to vote "yes" by living where you are living?)
I don't know if you're a property owner, but if you are - you may have
experienced something like I have a few times, which has rewarded me
tremendously financially. What I'm talking about is that - in spite of
paying all sorts of property, income, and sales taxes - the rise in the
value of housing in the last couple of decades has resulted in the fact that
I've been living for FREE (i.e., the houses I've owned in the last couple of
decades have produced more money than what I've paid in taxes, property
taxes, mortgage - *combined*). How can I complain about paying taxes when
I've been living in nice houses all these years - for free? I *love* paying
taxes - it's the very least I can do for being one of society's lucky
"haves." Of course, property values have not risen in some states as much
as in the states where I've owned houses (California and, presently,
Washington state), so maybe in those laggard property-value states one
doesn't otherwise have to pay as much in taxes ....
Oliver Wendell Holmes's famous quotation was that "Taxes are what we pay for
a civilized society." Surely, we're not yet as civilized as we can be, but
we're a hell of a lot more civilized than we were when "quiche" wasn't yet a
household word.
Olga
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