"Nanny" Tax
Here’s an interesting article about Payroll Taxes. They call it the “Nanny Tax” but it’s what is applied to any employee, as far as I can tell.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/183487
I am surprised that most people don’t know that the employer has to match part of the tax. It works something like this: If you make $12 per hour, the employer takes out about $1.00 for “with-holding” and then has to send that as well as another $1.00 to the Feds. On top of that there are labyrinthine state taxes.
If you could choose, would you forego the benefits to Social Security etc. in order to make 12% more?
Why is the payroll tax split? Why not make the employer pay it all? Why not make the employee pay it all? It can’t be an accident.
It’s also interesting to see how the various parties (employer, employee and the government) spin the various portions of the tax. What do you think?
I for one, don’t trust faraway bureaucrats to administer a worker’s money to their best benefit. I think that in the end they will take the money, mis-use it, over-extend, and ultimately the worker will be left to fend for his-her-self in the end anyway. That’s what you’re going to see in the coming year: government agencies at all levels howling how the money is all gone and how people just need to stand up and take care of themselves and each other. Hmmm… sounds like paying twice to get the job done once.
Then again, I know a lot of people that wouldn’t save up for retirement left to themselves. They would blow it on soda and twinkies, then have to live in a box and eat Alpo in their golden years. I mean, heck, I blew my retirement money to start a miniatures painting business. So how smart could I be? Do I need a benevolent and all-powerful government to take care of me and make me do the right thing?
It’s my opinion that individuals and small communities are well-suited to taking care of themselves most efficiently. Of course, it’s easy to believe this when living in such a tight-knit community as I do. We have monthly collections for the poor, that are administered carefully through a local man well-known for his integrity (and with oversight– this is called Fast Offering*). When a woman gives birth, the local Relief Society starts bringing meals to the family. Same for if someone is sick or injured. Help with medical bills can happen, too. There are two de facto public parks. One family even built a pavilion on the edge of it. Another a basketball court. Children play there under the watchful eye of a ring of two-story houses. Yards are well-tended and planted with flowers. If you move in here, and someone notices, it won’t be long until a brigade of volunteers shows up to lend a hand with the boxes. I can recite almost every family by name in a three block radius.
When we moved here, our house wasn’t ready to move in to. A local family took us in. For FOUR MONTHS.
This is what is called in an LDS community a “Ward”. Ours has 105 families. And we take care of each other quite well. On top of paying our Payroll taxes. I’m living in a Utopia of sorts. The main feature (invisible) is that it is voluntary. For me, that is the most important part.
Last thought: it is easier to fight and terminate local corruption than it is to fight corruption at the federal level. Where there is money there is rotten-ness. Where there is a LOT of money, there is a festering and putrid swamp of putridity. If you want to get rid of mosquitoes you have to drain the standing water.
*I realize this idea/practice is not unique to the Mormon people. In fact, I think any group of people could perform a similar function. Heck, you see this spontaneously at some game shops, where everyone bands together to help a member in need.