Remember when you got your first paycheck, presumably when you were a teenager? If you’re like most people, you worked a bunch of hours and calculated how much money you expected to receive, only to then be disappointed when the check you received was for a much smaller amount.
That was your rude welcome to the government-created gap between how much a business spends to employ you and how much money you actually receive. You probably looked at your check and tried to figure out why there was such a big difference between “gross pay” and “net pay.” If you’re like me, you had no idea about the workings of the Social Security system, but you were irked that you lost a bunch of your pay to “F.I.C.A.”
The only “good” news is that you probably had no idea that there were a bunch of taxes and costs that your employer incurred to employ you. So you were spared the anguish of knowing that your pay would be even higher than your gross pay if government wasn’t such a heavy burden.
This was one of the issues I raised in a recent appearance on CNBC. The debate supposedly was about whether workers are getting ripped off when they are paid with debit cards, but I think that’s a minor problem compared to the cost of big government.
I made the rather obvious point that there should be full disclosure of any fees and charges for the use of these cards, but I was much more concerned that the debate was overlooking a much bigger problem. The biggest threat to workers is a rapacious government that takes more and more of their paychecks.
I also explained that low-income workers wouldn’t be so vulnerable to fees if they had easier access to banking services. Unfortunately, government regulations such as money-laundering laws make it very expensive for banks to provide accounts – particularly for folks with modest incomes.
In other words, we’re looking at another example of Mitchell’s Law. Governments impose policies that cause problems. And then the politicians say we need even more intervention to deal withe the problems caused by previous interventions.
Which is why this poster is a very accurate description of how Washington really works.
Seeing all the reductions from my paycheck when I was younger was likely what lead me to become a conservative. I started wondering where all that money was going, and so started reading the paper, and listening to the news, and when much of that didn’t make sense to me, started digging in a bit more, and became a political junkie and a conservative.
Then I worked for (ran) a Habitat for Humanity for much of the 90s and that cemented my views. Everybody should have to earn their keep.
I have worked since I was about 10 years old, and resent all the fat salaries of the lazy useless bureaucrats, and the mind-boggling waste of those stupid government programs that I knew when I was a kid were going to be a waste. You don’t need a degree to understand human nature if you are one, especially if you have lazy, slobs for sisters and there is an inequity in the division of household chores when you are a little kid.
Watching me do their share worked for them, so they became foaming at the mouth liberals, but didn’t work for me, so I went the other direction. There should be no hand-outs, no free ride, ever, for anyone over the age of about 15. Everybody can do something, and so the recipients should be required to show up and work for their cheques, like the rest of us. And even little kids should be required to turn in schoolwork, adequately done, before their free lunches. Nobody ever benefits from government charity. Not the giver, not the taker.
Liz, you make a lot of sense. Even when someone benefits financially, they lose inner power because being financially dependent is not a powerful position to be in. Although they may lie to themselves and tell themselves it is good, they still know the truth deep inside. Hence their anger and resentment…
wow- that’s a memory I must have repressed- but you brought it back. I started my working career mowing lawns, and it was straight pay at $.50 per hour. It wasn’t until I became a dishwasher that I experienced the disappointment that you discuss. Later in life, I remember the year I paid almost $100k in taxes. I had always thought there were ways of “sheltering” income when you made a lot. I was wrong. If you work and get paid for it, that does not exist- it only exists if you make your money by NOT working for it.