We are all familiar with some of the major forms of taxation such as: Income tax, Property tax, Social Security, Medicare, sales tax, and gas tax. But, here is a list of some other taxes everyone may not be aware of:
Poll Tax, Excise, Gas, Import tariff, Inheritance, Death tax, Carbon tax, Blank media tax, Capital Gains tax, Corporate tax, Windfall profits tax, gift tax, generation skipping tax, luxury tax, recreational vehicle tax, fishing license tax, and so on.
Add to that the cost of compliance with the various taxes....it is absolutely astonishing.
If I earn one hundred dollars, here is what happens:
$28 goes to Federal income taxes
$8 goes to state income tax
$6 goes to social security
$4 goes to Medicare
$4 goes to property taxes
I am left with $50. Then I go spend it. If I spend $10 on utilities, $2 of that is tax. If I spend another $10 on clothing $1 goes to sales tax. In general, no matter what I buy, roughly 10% will go toward taxes directly. So, 10% of the $50 I spend, or $5, goes to taxes. But here is the deceiving part. Taxes act like compound interest. So, when I spend $100 at a store, I am paying more than just the 8% sales tax. In actuality, the price of the product includes all costs of production. So, when I buy a pencil, the sales price includes the taxes the lead manfucaturer paid on mining the lead in my pencil. It pays for the gas tax for the fuel the wood chopping company put in their truck. It is compound, not simple, interest. I did a quick Excel worksheet to calculate the effects of compound interest, and it turns out that fully 60% to 80% (depending on tariffs, local tax rates, etc) of a product I buy is taxes. So, back to my $50 I spend. Of that, roughly 70% of what I buy is paying for more taxes. So, $35 on taxes, of the $50. This means that for every $100 I earn, I pay $50 + $35 in taxes = $85.
Why does this matter? Because right now, consumers are being crunched and the only winner is the Government. People complain about "greedy" corporations. But, it's simply not true - the greedy party is the Government. Think about it.
