There are a lot of things in this world that I don’t care too much about. These are usually the types of things that I choose not to be informed on. They’re also usually the types of things that I have no control or influence over. Politics is probably at the top of that list. (yeah, yeah, you grassroots types can stop reading now and go post your stupid comments about “making a difference”) My issue with politics is that the issues are far too complex to grasp without putting a lot of research and reading into the subject. I get angered when people feel they can argue a political point based solely on the thirty second news blurb they heard on the radio that morning. To me it’s too succinct of a basis to form an informed opinion. In fact, it irritates me when anyone tries to argue anything without some type of knowledge on the subject. And when I say knowledge, I mean depth, not breadth. Frankly, your opinion means nothing to me unless you really know what you’re talking about. I’ve met a lot of people that have very strong opinions and I’d be willing to bet that their opinions would change if they really knew the issues. (and don’t even get me started adopting opinions solely because of your party affiliation)

Which brings me to my next point: taxes. What’s with everyone walking around saying that low income families are overly burdened by taxes and the rich get off easy? I actually kinda believed it … until I filed my taxes this weekend. The amount of money I just gave to the federal government is obscene. Like “I could buy fifteen flatscreen TVs with this money” type of obscene. And since I’m admittedly ignorant to what the government does with my money, I ask: “what does the government do with my money!?” By my calculations, they should be sending me a check for well over a thousand dollars on a monthly basis.

But I digress … the real issue here that annoys me is the (what I now believe to be false) rumor that the rich get a tax break and the poor are unduly taxed. I was talking to this girl the other night and she told me that she didn’t like Bush because of “taxes”. Huh, what, taxes?! What about taxes? “Poor people are overly taxed, and the rich have it easy” she said. I didn’t argue the point cause I was ignorant to the issue and I didn’t get the sense that her opinion ran much deeper than this public sentiment that’s been floating around. That statement combined with seeing on paper how much I actually paid in taxes made me wonder what the distribution of tax rates really are. I’ve seen the tax brackets before but never really thought about the progression of rates from rich to poor. And the tax brackets don’t even begin to cover things like the Earned Income Tax Credit. So I started looking into the issue.* Imagine my surprise when I read that the top 50% of taxpayers (anyone making over $30K) accounted for 96% of all income tax revenue in 2002. 96%!? And low income individuals are overly burdened by taxes?  According to those numbers, 50% of the country is carrying the other half. And that includes me. And you. And it’s getting worse. Based on Bush’s 2003’s tax cuts, if you made less than $40K a year (the two lowest tax brackets) you received anywhere from a 17-20% tax cut. If you made $100K+, (the two highest tax brackets) your tax cut was only a little over 11%. I’m not a proponent of Bush (actually I’m not a proponent of any politician or party) but all the numbers seem to point to a lessening of a tax burden on the poor.

If you paid attention to the first paragraph here, you’re probably calling me a hypocrite right about now. How can I form an opinion on something as complex tax issues? I’m not here to place an opinion on economic theory or politics in general, just kinda curious about personal income tax. I acknowledge there are other factors involved like capitol gains and the marriage penalty, but right now I’m only speaking to how much tax you actually pay in the end and moreover what percentage of the overall personal income tax revenue that is. If that doesn’t satisfy you, stop reading, it’s my website and I’ll say what I want. If that still doesn’t satisfy you, leave an intelligent comment as to why I’m wrong.

So I find myself still with the same question: Why do people believe that the rich have it easy and the poor are unduly taxed? (Heck, with the Earned Income Tax Credit you could actually earn $30K a year, owe no taxes after deductions, and receive a check from the government for almost $700. Sheesh.) I guess my feeling is that it’s the Adam Smith rule. Politicians go on and on about the over taxation of the poor because they need the votes, while they can get away with ignoring the rich. (or at least publicly ignoring them).

The funny thing is that this was supposed to be an “I got a $500 refund this year, what should I spend it on?” post, but turned out to be a diatribe on taxes. As I said in the beginning, there’s not much I can do about it other than bitch and moan. Like Franklin said, “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”

* I’ll explain later about my obsessive personality when it comes to “looking into issues”

I know I haven’t posted in a while, but the problem is that so many things have been going on in my personal life lately, but unfortunately I can’t talk about any of them publicly. Its times like these that I want to go back to my anonymous weblog where I had codenames and everything. People (strangers) read it and seemed to enjoy it, but there was always that nagging fear that someone I knew would stumble across it. I guess the reason it was interesting was because I never had to censor myself. Posts like “this is why I’m terrible in bed” are infinitely more interesting than “my car broke down again.” Who knows, maybe I’ll revisit the idea. In the meantime there’s always the immensely entertaining grouphug.us for my anonymous confessions.