Flaws in the system
I learned something today--that LJ has a limit on the length of comments. So, this is actually a comment to a brilliant political post on a friend's page. It's regarding our tax system and the flaws in it. (Shout out to M2_I) You should read it--it's very thought provoking. Anyway, this is my answer:
I agree that there are flaws in the system. I also have the unpopular notion that socialism failed because human nature sucks. When "Each according to his ability, each according to his need" crumbled, it was because no one aspired to anything if they couldn't see immediate personal gain. Materialism and Commercialism are evils, if you ask me, but they work because they utilize the basic truth that many of us deny in ourselves but can't deny when speaking of people en mass: people suck. Programs mandating help for others are in place because the vast majority of people feel themselves charitable when they drop twenty five cents or less into the bucket for Jerry's Kids rather than back into their pockets, when they're really only doing it because they hate carrying around change in the first place. There will always be that "gee, that's too bad. I wish I could help" concept, but very few people would contribute enough to make a real difference.
America is based on freedom and dreams--you can be nothing one day and a millionaire the next, doing something you love to do because you're allowed to do it. The real "American Dream" doesn't happen often, but because it's possible, people still hold on to hope. That's why so many wonderful, crazy ideas originate here--because people are willing to try. Our help-system, flawed though it may be, makes that possible. If it weren't in place, the "haves" would continue to "have," the "have-nots" would continue to "have not," the little guy would very seldom have the opportunity to rise above his station, and people would often stay in the "family business," whatever that means in their family, simply because it's safe.
When the family is the main support, the family also has a lot of clout. My sister went to school on relatives' dollars because she chose something they found worthy. I, however, will be paying on student loans for eons because when I told people in my family what I wanted, and they couldn't talk me out of it, they said, "Gee, good luck with that." If there was no "net," going "out on a limb" would be a scary venture that few could take, and staying close to hearth and home would be safer. That may be cool in some families, but it isn't for me. This apple fell from the tree, rolled as far as gravity would let her, then took a cab to another orchard.
I'm not on welfare and I don't plan to be. I don't sleep better at night knowing that welfare is there and I do think that the program itself encourages people not to work. I did at one time use Medi-Cal because I couldn't get medical insurance after I found out that I was pregnant, and to me, that was just what should be for everyone. Still, that was a very temporary situation. There are temporary programs available for people in crisis because without them, there would be no such thing as a temporary crisis. Many people abuse the system, true, but many others take the grants for school and use them to build a better life. They take cash-aid when they don't have work, but are able to get work and support their family thereafter. That's what it was meant for.
Medical care in this country is expensive, and it should be a person's right to get help when they're sick as just part of living here. That's something that I think taxes should pay for--let doctor's get their paychecks (nice, full, healthy paychecks) from the state or federal government so there will be no need to advertise that their practice is close to home or good with scars or having a special on MRIs. Privatizing medicine may have made for nicer waiting rooms, but it didn't do anything for the real health of the nation. Perhaps, in our world, higher education and medical care would be available for everyone.
I don't pay rent so that the leak in my neighbor's building can be fixed, but that's what they do with the money. People need to stop looking at the tax money they spend as "paying for other people's mistakes" and start just thinking of it as the price of living in a free country where, should they need it, there are grants and help available.
Coincidentally, if those programs weren't in place, families would need to keep $20K in the bank in case their mom should need it. Not wanting to pay taxes so that you don't have to support anyone's mother, including your own, just means that we all go back to our families, and you would be supporting your mother, so those saved taxes would have to go into an account for the "what-ifs" not just for you, but for everyone you love. Without mandatory programs, we would have no programs at all, and people with money would have well-taken-care-of elderly, and families without money would have very full apartments or no home at all.
As for the tax credits and tax deductions, I do think that many rich people with fat accountants manage to pay far less than their share, but it's just simple math for the rest of us. How much do you make and how many people are you supporting with that? Ok, that means that you are going to need more of that money for just food and clothes and stuff than, say, a single person just supporting themselves with that money, and I'm going to ask you to pay less because if I don't you'll just be in line for government aid and I'll be giving it all back anyway. Kids cost money, and they don't make an income, and so there's a deduction on taxes for the people supporting them because that money is paying for more people than it should have to. There is a choice to have kids these days, particularly with procedures in place should life hand you an unwelcome surprise, but most people want kids, and kids mean that this country, and humanity as a whole, has a future. 6 kids are a bad idea, but one or two are actually a good idea. I don't think that they are encouraging people to have kids for the money as much as they are trying not to discourage people from having kids because of the money. There are lots better reasons to decide not to have kids than the money.
So, the tax system is in need of an overhaul, and the welfare system is in need of an overhaul, but voluntary participation is not the answer. Call it Citizen Rent, pay it like any other bill, and let the property managers known as the US Government figure out what they need to do to keep things running smoothly. If they have a low-income program and your neighbor isn't paying the same amount you are, that's none of anyone's business. If anyone thinks they are paying too much and aren't getting the value for their dollar, move. It's much worse everywhere else.
Take advantage of the deductions you can because they are there to make sure that you, in your situation, have enough money to succeed in life, but outside of those committing welfare fraud, those deductions aren't really there to give you a reason to do something you aren't already doing. Most people use the deductions that fit their lives; they don't live their lives to fit the best deductions.
And I am SO glad we don't have mandatory military service. That would seriously suck. Not everyone was cut out to wield a gun, and I am entirely too anti-war--more likely to carry a picket sign than a weapon. Talk about not wanting to take care of others without a choice--what's mandated military service if not just that? And in that vein, they're not asking for a percentage of your money, they may be asking for your life. I'm liberal and I'm giving and all of that, but various misguided world causes can not have my husband or either of my sons, or me for that matter.
Oddly, I think it's actually idealistic to believe that if the government stopped taking care of people that people would rise up and take care of each other. I think there may be some truth to that, but for the most part, no. What the "doers" would be able to accomplish would be far less than what the government was doing before, which is far less already than some of us would like to see. That same "what's in it for me" attitude would be there with or without the initial "they get money from my check anyway" part. It's truly unfortunate, but people suck. Instead, you'd hear things like, "I know, it's terrible, but what can I do about it? With two kids in Reebok's, Satellite TV, the cars, the house, the time share and everything else, I'm barely making ends meet myself. Besides, I don't expect anyone to take care of me."
What everyone fails to understand is that we are all, from the biggest big cheese to the lowest minimum wage earner, no more than 2 months of bad luck away from bankruptcy. Lose your job, have major medical complications, and a couple of surprise bills at the same time and you're screwed. Sure, if you have stocks to sell, equity to liquidate, you can stay up a little longer, but when everything settles down you are now further in the hole than when you started, and if you could barely pay the bills before you certainly can't pay higher minimums or new loan payments in addition to everything else. You can struggle through it, perhaps, depending on how deep the hole is and how resourceful you can be, but what if that bad luck left you with some personal issues to deal with--still out of work for medical reasons, or having to change your career so that you don't have the same set of job-skills for medical reasons, or just plain depressed on a clinical level from all the crap in life. You may not be at your most resourceful stage in life. The bottom line is that every person who needs help is us, two or three unlucky months from now. If they choose to let those months define the rest of their lives, they ride the system, and that's where we need to make changes, but the system itself is necessary. The other American slogan--"shit happens."
I wish that the educational system included senior camp--for the summer between high school and college. It's part of their education and they can be marked truant if they don't attend without a doctor's note. For one month they would work as volunteers in a soup kitchen or veteran's hospital or homeless shelter, and as part of their assignment they would have to find someone to talk to and write a report on that person's life--what they were before, how they got there and what that student can do differently to avoid that path or help others to get back on their feet. After that, they would have to spend a month in an in-bound call center, and a month in an out-bound call center, followed by 15 minutes in a big-head costume at a major theme park on a hot day. Then all Americans would learn several things before they even have the chance to grow up to be jerks:
1) There is always someone who has it worse than you so quit whining. And, that guy was you not long ago, so count your blessings, watch your step and try to help the guy next to you before you become that guy hoping someone will help you.
2) There aren't many perfect jobs in the world, but everyone has to do something. What we all need to know is that the person who seems to be standing in your way is only doing their job, and they hate going to work as much as you do. Be nice to them. They aren't living their lives to be a bit-part in yours, and they do have feelings.
3) No matter how mean people are to you, sometimes you just have to keep going. It's your job as a person to survive, and if that means grabbing a quick cup of coffee while the ringing in your ears clears up after that last guy yelled at you, then getting right back out there and trying again, only to interrupt someone else's dinner, then that's what you do. It's your job.
4) No matter what job they end up with in life they already know it's not as bad as call-centers, so they can appreciate that at least.
and 5) It's not cute when a kid pulls Tigger's tail. Never. Not at all. And it wouldn't make a cute picture for the album and they will never let/tell their kid to do it. That's one step closer to a better world right there.
Our system is in place because of who we are as people. Maybe that's where we need to start. We need to make better people. I'll work on that with my kids, and if everyone does that we'll be ok. Unfortunately we can't make that happen. It's a free country.
But, that's just my take on it. I'm amazingly liberal in all things, and I know that I'm not the norm. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions on this or any subject. Like Dennis Miller always says, I could be wrong.
I agree that there are flaws in the system. I also have the unpopular notion that socialism failed because human nature sucks. When "Each according to his ability, each according to his need" crumbled, it was because no one aspired to anything if they couldn't see immediate personal gain. Materialism and Commercialism are evils, if you ask me, but they work because they utilize the basic truth that many of us deny in ourselves but can't deny when speaking of people en mass: people suck. Programs mandating help for others are in place because the vast majority of people feel themselves charitable when they drop twenty five cents or less into the bucket for Jerry's Kids rather than back into their pockets, when they're really only doing it because they hate carrying around change in the first place. There will always be that "gee, that's too bad. I wish I could help" concept, but very few people would contribute enough to make a real difference.
America is based on freedom and dreams--you can be nothing one day and a millionaire the next, doing something you love to do because you're allowed to do it. The real "American Dream" doesn't happen often, but because it's possible, people still hold on to hope. That's why so many wonderful, crazy ideas originate here--because people are willing to try. Our help-system, flawed though it may be, makes that possible. If it weren't in place, the "haves" would continue to "have," the "have-nots" would continue to "have not," the little guy would very seldom have the opportunity to rise above his station, and people would often stay in the "family business," whatever that means in their family, simply because it's safe.
When the family is the main support, the family also has a lot of clout. My sister went to school on relatives' dollars because she chose something they found worthy. I, however, will be paying on student loans for eons because when I told people in my family what I wanted, and they couldn't talk me out of it, they said, "Gee, good luck with that." If there was no "net," going "out on a limb" would be a scary venture that few could take, and staying close to hearth and home would be safer. That may be cool in some families, but it isn't for me. This apple fell from the tree, rolled as far as gravity would let her, then took a cab to another orchard.
I'm not on welfare and I don't plan to be. I don't sleep better at night knowing that welfare is there and I do think that the program itself encourages people not to work. I did at one time use Medi-Cal because I couldn't get medical insurance after I found out that I was pregnant, and to me, that was just what should be for everyone. Still, that was a very temporary situation. There are temporary programs available for people in crisis because without them, there would be no such thing as a temporary crisis. Many people abuse the system, true, but many others take the grants for school and use them to build a better life. They take cash-aid when they don't have work, but are able to get work and support their family thereafter. That's what it was meant for.
Medical care in this country is expensive, and it should be a person's right to get help when they're sick as just part of living here. That's something that I think taxes should pay for--let doctor's get their paychecks (nice, full, healthy paychecks) from the state or federal government so there will be no need to advertise that their practice is close to home or good with scars or having a special on MRIs. Privatizing medicine may have made for nicer waiting rooms, but it didn't do anything for the real health of the nation. Perhaps, in our world, higher education and medical care would be available for everyone.
I don't pay rent so that the leak in my neighbor's building can be fixed, but that's what they do with the money. People need to stop looking at the tax money they spend as "paying for other people's mistakes" and start just thinking of it as the price of living in a free country where, should they need it, there are grants and help available.
Coincidentally, if those programs weren't in place, families would need to keep $20K in the bank in case their mom should need it. Not wanting to pay taxes so that you don't have to support anyone's mother, including your own, just means that we all go back to our families, and you would be supporting your mother, so those saved taxes would have to go into an account for the "what-ifs" not just for you, but for everyone you love. Without mandatory programs, we would have no programs at all, and people with money would have well-taken-care-of elderly, and families without money would have very full apartments or no home at all.
As for the tax credits and tax deductions, I do think that many rich people with fat accountants manage to pay far less than their share, but it's just simple math for the rest of us. How much do you make and how many people are you supporting with that? Ok, that means that you are going to need more of that money for just food and clothes and stuff than, say, a single person just supporting themselves with that money, and I'm going to ask you to pay less because if I don't you'll just be in line for government aid and I'll be giving it all back anyway. Kids cost money, and they don't make an income, and so there's a deduction on taxes for the people supporting them because that money is paying for more people than it should have to. There is a choice to have kids these days, particularly with procedures in place should life hand you an unwelcome surprise, but most people want kids, and kids mean that this country, and humanity as a whole, has a future. 6 kids are a bad idea, but one or two are actually a good idea. I don't think that they are encouraging people to have kids for the money as much as they are trying not to discourage people from having kids because of the money. There are lots better reasons to decide not to have kids than the money.
So, the tax system is in need of an overhaul, and the welfare system is in need of an overhaul, but voluntary participation is not the answer. Call it Citizen Rent, pay it like any other bill, and let the property managers known as the US Government figure out what they need to do to keep things running smoothly. If they have a low-income program and your neighbor isn't paying the same amount you are, that's none of anyone's business. If anyone thinks they are paying too much and aren't getting the value for their dollar, move. It's much worse everywhere else.
Take advantage of the deductions you can because they are there to make sure that you, in your situation, have enough money to succeed in life, but outside of those committing welfare fraud, those deductions aren't really there to give you a reason to do something you aren't already doing. Most people use the deductions that fit their lives; they don't live their lives to fit the best deductions.
And I am SO glad we don't have mandatory military service. That would seriously suck. Not everyone was cut out to wield a gun, and I am entirely too anti-war--more likely to carry a picket sign than a weapon. Talk about not wanting to take care of others without a choice--what's mandated military service if not just that? And in that vein, they're not asking for a percentage of your money, they may be asking for your life. I'm liberal and I'm giving and all of that, but various misguided world causes can not have my husband or either of my sons, or me for that matter.
Oddly, I think it's actually idealistic to believe that if the government stopped taking care of people that people would rise up and take care of each other. I think there may be some truth to that, but for the most part, no. What the "doers" would be able to accomplish would be far less than what the government was doing before, which is far less already than some of us would like to see. That same "what's in it for me" attitude would be there with or without the initial "they get money from my check anyway" part. It's truly unfortunate, but people suck. Instead, you'd hear things like, "I know, it's terrible, but what can I do about it? With two kids in Reebok's, Satellite TV, the cars, the house, the time share and everything else, I'm barely making ends meet myself. Besides, I don't expect anyone to take care of me."
What everyone fails to understand is that we are all, from the biggest big cheese to the lowest minimum wage earner, no more than 2 months of bad luck away from bankruptcy. Lose your job, have major medical complications, and a couple of surprise bills at the same time and you're screwed. Sure, if you have stocks to sell, equity to liquidate, you can stay up a little longer, but when everything settles down you are now further in the hole than when you started, and if you could barely pay the bills before you certainly can't pay higher minimums or new loan payments in addition to everything else. You can struggle through it, perhaps, depending on how deep the hole is and how resourceful you can be, but what if that bad luck left you with some personal issues to deal with--still out of work for medical reasons, or having to change your career so that you don't have the same set of job-skills for medical reasons, or just plain depressed on a clinical level from all the crap in life. You may not be at your most resourceful stage in life. The bottom line is that every person who needs help is us, two or three unlucky months from now. If they choose to let those months define the rest of their lives, they ride the system, and that's where we need to make changes, but the system itself is necessary. The other American slogan--"shit happens."
I wish that the educational system included senior camp--for the summer between high school and college. It's part of their education and they can be marked truant if they don't attend without a doctor's note. For one month they would work as volunteers in a soup kitchen or veteran's hospital or homeless shelter, and as part of their assignment they would have to find someone to talk to and write a report on that person's life--what they were before, how they got there and what that student can do differently to avoid that path or help others to get back on their feet. After that, they would have to spend a month in an in-bound call center, and a month in an out-bound call center, followed by 15 minutes in a big-head costume at a major theme park on a hot day. Then all Americans would learn several things before they even have the chance to grow up to be jerks:
1) There is always someone who has it worse than you so quit whining. And, that guy was you not long ago, so count your blessings, watch your step and try to help the guy next to you before you become that guy hoping someone will help you.
2) There aren't many perfect jobs in the world, but everyone has to do something. What we all need to know is that the person who seems to be standing in your way is only doing their job, and they hate going to work as much as you do. Be nice to them. They aren't living their lives to be a bit-part in yours, and they do have feelings.
3) No matter how mean people are to you, sometimes you just have to keep going. It's your job as a person to survive, and if that means grabbing a quick cup of coffee while the ringing in your ears clears up after that last guy yelled at you, then getting right back out there and trying again, only to interrupt someone else's dinner, then that's what you do. It's your job.
4) No matter what job they end up with in life they already know it's not as bad as call-centers, so they can appreciate that at least.
and 5) It's not cute when a kid pulls Tigger's tail. Never. Not at all. And it wouldn't make a cute picture for the album and they will never let/tell their kid to do it. That's one step closer to a better world right there.
Our system is in place because of who we are as people. Maybe that's where we need to start. We need to make better people. I'll work on that with my kids, and if everyone does that we'll be ok. Unfortunately we can't make that happen. It's a free country.
But, that's just my take on it. I'm amazingly liberal in all things, and I know that I'm not the norm. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions on this or any subject. Like Dennis Miller always says, I could be wrong.