No tax return/refund should be higher than the taxes paid in any given year. Any return higher than what is paid in is a welfare check. What's worse is the redistribution of wealth in question has to be done through the inefficient bureaucracy of the state, costing us even more. I don't blame people for taking the money since they are taxed in lots of other ways too. I blame the Government for being stupid.
Another thing that baffles me is the fact that I work for the Government, which taxes what it pays me, then makes me file a tax return so the Government can pay me some money back. Why not just lower my salary a little, make it "tax-free" and save us both some time?
Thoughts on either?
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs"... Sounds Great!
I read a story about a school teacher who gave a quiz near the beginning of the school year. As expected, the grades were varied, from high A's to whatever was at the bottom. When he returned the quizzes, the correct grades were all there, then crossed out and the average of everyone's grades was put on each quiz. When the teacher explained why to the class, he said that the class would perform together and that everyone in the class was going to receive the average of everyone's grades. Naturally, in the spirit of togetherness, individuals in the class would improve their grades for the good of everyone.
This went on for a few weeks. More quizzes were given out and the class's grades changed... for the worse. The average continually dropped as students figured out they didn't have to work hard and they'd be carried by the smarter and/or harder working kids in class. Parents began calling the school asking what was going on. The teacher continued and some parents became irate. Something had to be done about this teacher who was obviously off his rocker.
The school decided to call the parents in to class with all the students there. The teacher came in and spoke about the benefits of ensuring equality and how he was doing a great thing. The horrified parents of the better students lit in to the teacher. When they calmed down a bit, he explained that this was a long lesson in the evils of Communism.
Brilliant! The teacher showed the kids (and the parents) what happens when the reward for hard work and natural ability is taken away. What better way to teach these kids than to have them experience it first-hand? There is no incentive to succeed and the situation for everyone deteriorates because the people at the top don't feel the need and the people at the bottom do worse because they can depend on others. I don't know what happened to their actual grades. I like to think they all got an "A".
As we continue to vote ourselves more and more money from the public treasury with every wacko interest group getting its share, we follow a path the Europeans have been on for quite a while. Soon, if we keep stealing from our kids and grand-kids, we'll also be a second-rate country like all of them.
"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" -- Dr. Karl Marx. Ol' Karl and his modern-day acolytes could excite the masses with populist rhetoric, but he left out human nature... or nature altogether. For all his studies of economics and the plight of the common worker, you'd think he would have realized the needs to compete, succeed, and have some personal pride. Unfortunately for hundreds of millions of people, there had to be a few experiments with Communism and its Socialist off-shoots to prove him wrong.
What's the point of this blog posting? I just wanted you to read the story about the teacher. I thought it was great... and very relevant considering today's financial environment, universal healthcare, etc.
This went on for a few weeks. More quizzes were given out and the class's grades changed... for the worse. The average continually dropped as students figured out they didn't have to work hard and they'd be carried by the smarter and/or harder working kids in class. Parents began calling the school asking what was going on. The teacher continued and some parents became irate. Something had to be done about this teacher who was obviously off his rocker.
The school decided to call the parents in to class with all the students there. The teacher came in and spoke about the benefits of ensuring equality and how he was doing a great thing. The horrified parents of the better students lit in to the teacher. When they calmed down a bit, he explained that this was a long lesson in the evils of Communism.
Brilliant! The teacher showed the kids (and the parents) what happens when the reward for hard work and natural ability is taken away. What better way to teach these kids than to have them experience it first-hand? There is no incentive to succeed and the situation for everyone deteriorates because the people at the top don't feel the need and the people at the bottom do worse because they can depend on others. I don't know what happened to their actual grades. I like to think they all got an "A".
As we continue to vote ourselves more and more money from the public treasury with every wacko interest group getting its share, we follow a path the Europeans have been on for quite a while. Soon, if we keep stealing from our kids and grand-kids, we'll also be a second-rate country like all of them.
"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" -- Dr. Karl Marx. Ol' Karl and his modern-day acolytes could excite the masses with populist rhetoric, but he left out human nature... or nature altogether. For all his studies of economics and the plight of the common worker, you'd think he would have realized the needs to compete, succeed, and have some personal pride. Unfortunately for hundreds of millions of people, there had to be a few experiments with Communism and its Socialist off-shoots to prove him wrong.
What's the point of this blog posting? I just wanted you to read the story about the teacher. I thought it was great... and very relevant considering today's financial environment, universal healthcare, etc.
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