From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Jul 07 2002 - 12:24:14 MDT
Olga Bourlin wrote:
> 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?)
The majority of my taxes are various federal rakeoffs that would
effect me wherever I live. It is true that less State and sales
tax, etc. could be head in different states. However, for now,
my career interests lead me to make my home in California.
Believe me, I am considering changing this. But I don't live
here in order to condone their tax system. Nor will I move just
to oppose it. Both are indeed simplistic.
>
> 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 ....
>
You "love" paying taxes. Oh my. You are a sick puppy! :-) In
the Silly Con Valley I am in no position to become a property
owner at this time due to the ultra-high housing and other costs
and as I pay out more than many make in support of my ex-family.
> 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.
>
I don't find our society particularly "civilized" at times.
- samantha
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