Taxes 2008

According to the Seattle Times, people shouldn’t protest their taxes since the vast majority of people are paying less taxes now than in the last 30 years. The paper claims that the vast majority of people pay an average of 9% of their income in federal taxes. I claim BS.

Looking at my figures for the year, working part time while attending school full time earned me $10,577 from all income sources. Of that $10.6K I paid $876 in federal withholdings, $631 in socialist security, $251 in fuel taxes, $147 in Medicare taxes, $126 L&I taxes, $94 in sales tax, and $81 in vehicle registration taxes. Add all of those up and I paid 20.86% of my 2008 income in taxes. This is my second largest expense, the largest being school.

I misplaced many of my receipts from the first part of the year, so I know that the sales tax figure I'm using is actually lower than it should be. The federal government claims that only the wealthy will be getting their taxes increased. I plan to be one of those wealthy people in a few years and I don’t see why I should be penalized for being more productive to society than I am today.

The government is penalizing the most productive part of our economy in order to subsidize the least productive part. The wealthiest individuals and the most profitable businesses pay trillions in taxes, while the government is giving that money away to people who make very little money and to businesses that have been run into the ground as a result of poor management. And some people truly wonder why tens of thousands of people are out protesting today?