By Jim Fisher
I sat down with all the w-2s and 1099 forms and bank statements to try and figure out how much money I made last year. Since my wife and I are officially empty nesters with no student loans or tuition to be paying I was kinda surprised at how much we are making nowa days especially when we really don’t have that much extra between paychecks. So I broke down the numbers… Groceries, utilities, maintenance, taxes… The biggest expense we have is taxes by far!
Over 28%, not including the almost 7 % I have to pay for health care “tax” as the supreme court put it. 35 % of every dollar we make goes to pay taxes and that doesn’t even include sales tax on the things we buy or tax on our utilities and phone bills or the tax I pay every time I fill up my gas tank!
Now what am I getting for all those taxes I pay… well I do drive to work every day on a road, full of pot holes, that damage my tires causing me to buy new ones and pay more sales tax. I pay a tremendous amount of tax for kids to go to public school that the Federal Government now controls through Common Core. The dollar amount I pay in taxes for a public school could pay for the tuition of a private school where a parent has a choice on what their children are taught.
Think of the things I could do with that 35% of my income if I didn’t have to give it to the government! I could replace my garage door opener that cannot be fixed because it’s too old to meet government safety requirements. I am not aware of it hurting anybody in the 40 years it’s been opening my garage door. I could replace that rickety old barn which would provide employment for some workers for a couple weeks, not to mention the workers making the materials to build the new barn with, but then I would have to pay higher property tax. With that extra money, I could go out to eat more often again providing employment opportunities at those delicious restaurants. Oh,think of what a significant difference I could make in someone’s life if I could give that money that I pay in taxes, to a charity. Heck, If I and a few of the neighborly folks here took some of that money we have to pay in taxes and invested in a steam roller we could fix those pot holes in the road.
Jim Fisher has lived on a small farm outside of Hudson for 30 years. Jim has been married to Jayne for 36 years. Together they have raised two daughters. (no grandchildren). Jim has served on the Unit Five Board of Education. Jim works with the McLean County Tea Party.
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