Money is fuel. Money is power. Money is control. Government takes in money and distributes/spends it, ostensibly for the benefit of the entire nation. The Democrats have honed to a fine edge the art of increasing the take and distributing it to buy votes. As I have said so many times before, like the frog simmering in the pot, like the death from a thousand cuts, we have been conditioned to ignore the top line of our paychecks and focus only on our “take home pay.” Thus, incrementally, ever so imperceptibly, government’s take is obscured and its control expanded.
Today, government spending as a percent of GDP is 46% (see the Wikipedia article here.). 46%!!!!!! Let that sink in!
We don’t feel it, per se, because we just focus on “net take home pay”.
Now, what if withholdings were eliminated and everyone were forced to make quarterly tax payments. Your GROSS PAY, i.e. WHAT YOU ACTUALLY EARN, is deposited to your checking account every two weeks. Each quarter you would write a check to the IRS, State and Local taxing authorities for the amount you owe.
NOW YOU’RE GOING TO FEEL IT, AND IT’S GONNA HURT!
Of course, the government will never permit this…the tax code is too complicated and the amount people owe to indefinite to allow people to figure out what they owe. And too many people would evade their obligation and the government would be forced to chase their take (87,000 new IRS agents anyone????)
But boy, if everyone could see and feel how much was being taking out of what they legitimately have earned, they’d think twice about voting for Green New Deals, the amount we give in foreign aid, how much is spent on welfare and subsidies, how much is spent on government administration, etc.