August 18, 2008
by Philip A Farruggio
There you stand, pumping the black gold into your starving 4 or 6 or 8 cylinder monster. I say monster cause when it takes $ 40 or $ 50 or $ 60 bucks to satisfy its hunger , then it must be a beast! Did you ever wonder about how many rich people pump gas as compared to we 9 to 5 stiffs? I mean, isn't it true that the overwhelming majority of gas taxes collected come from we the non rich?
Check out the taxes on that gallon of black gold, by the way. Then shift gears and visit any type of retail store. Let's just take the most common one, the single most dominant retailer in the history of the United States, Wal- Mart. Look at the people waiting on line at the register. Yep, its mostly 9 to 5 folks like you and me. Then, calculate the 6 % or 7 % sales tax that each of those customers pays at that register.
Now do you get it? It is we 9 to 5 Americans, not the rich, who pay most of the taxes in this economy.
This writer has a differing definition of rich than the ' Two Party/ One Party ' politicians. They have concocted a cockamamie tax code that treats anyone earning in excess of what..... around $ 250,000 a year or something like that, in the same top bracket as some super rich person who may earn 2 million, 10 million or even 100 million a year.
This writer says hogwash to that. For purposes of rational discussion, going by today's economic climate etc., let us say that any one person ( not a household ) that earns in excess of one million dollars annually should be classified as rich. Now let us solve the current dilemma of this economic, social and mental depression pulling at us. We have massive foreclosures , many perpetrated by scam artists in three piece suits on Wall Street and the banking community. We have massive factory and business closings, which force millions of our neighbors onto the street in search of employment.
As a sidebar, a terrible one at that, check out what a local retail business owner just related to this writer. One year ago, the owner ran an ad in the local Pennysaver weekly, seeking someone to hold a sign on the street corner near his store. Sign holding in this community has gotten popular, due to the high cost of advertising in newspapers, radio and television. For $ 7.00 or $ 8.00 an hour, a store can get great visibility with a sign holder outside. Well, one year ago, the store owner only received 3 or 4 phone calls from his ad.
Last week, he ran the ad again, and the phone rang off the hook! He had people calling from miles away, with no car, saying: " I need a job, any job, and I'll walk there if I have to. " Even for a part time gig of 2 hours a day, the callers were desperate. One man, severely disabled, showed up at the store to apply. The man could only use one arm and he had to exert great effort to just walk from his car. He stated repeatedly that he needed the job in order to afford three meals daily. Sad, but true. We also have 50 million fellow Americans with no health coverage, and just as hideous, perhaps 100 million or more ( including this writer and his family ) with under coverage .
Thus, to most Americans, if you get really ill you are screwed! How many of you must choose each month between a proper diet or medication? Between buying the kid something for school, or medication? Between self treatment (or no treatment) and paying for a doctor visit? Alas, the rich , as defined above, they never need have those debates within their homes.
What to do? OK, let us simplify. For starters, let's have the federal government first lower the tax brackets for all incomes up to one million dollars earned. Then, institute a wealth surtax of 50% on every dollar earned in excess of the first one million by any one person. No write-offs, no accounting baloney, just 50 cents on every dollar after the first one million earned, sending it straight to Uncle Sam. Bonuses, stock options, gifts, or any sort of tax dodge is prohibited.
You earn 2 million a year, you pay less than you currently owe on the first million of income. Then, you keep $ 500,000 of the second million earned, and Uncle gets the other $ 500,000. Congress, when and if it creates such a law, should add to it that the surtax revenues can only be spent on domestic needs. Imagine if a portion of this money went to help jump-start a Medicare for All plan. Thus, all of us would enjoy the same coverage that our seniors now have- maybe even have Medicare improved upon as well.
As a caveat to help keep such a plan intact, anyone who wishes to be included in such a ' Medicare for All ' plan, must contribute a % of earnings. A small % , perhaps up to a ceiling of maybe $ 5,000 a year per person. So, under this writer's plan, someone earning minimum wage would perhaps contribute $ 500 a year into the plan, and someone else earning $ 20,000 a year maybe would be responsible for $ 1000 a year ... And so on, until the ceiling is reached.... Similar to our current FICA. Most doctors would love such a plan compared to what now exists. With a Medicare for All schedule, at least the doctor can get reimbursed for procedures- however low they may be. Half a loaf is better than none.
Getting back to the surtax idea, ask yourself this pertinent question: How much does one human being need in order to live comfortably? Where is the Judeo Christian ideal that we are all our ' Brother's keeper ' and all that? Some CEO or hedge fund guru or anyone who has ' made it ' financially, cannot accept earning ten million ( after taxes ) instead of nineteen million? Remember that it was Bush's ( so called ) role model who said it best: " Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to go to heaven. "
Time for all we 9 to 5 Americans to raise our voices and say ' Enough is enough ' before it is too late.
If you enjoyed this post, please make a donation to help keep this website active:
Click Here for the Free Populist Party Newsletter
Philip A Farruggio [send him email] is a free lance columnist, small businessman and activist. Since the 2000 elections, he has had over 90 columns posted on various websites and in many newspaper op-ed sections. To review some which have been shown, just google his name.
More Articles from Phil Faruggio
