WendyMcElroy.com
Let's tax everything!Yet another reason I advocate "alternative" means of financing your life -- e.g. barter, self-sufficiency, the gray-market, agorism, frugality, freecycling and other freebie networks etc. -- is that these areas of endeavor still function without being taxed to death. You can get the full value of your labor if you barter it; you can acquire a 'new' computer for free if you are willing to offer useable goods from your own basement or attic on the lists where such goods are exchanged. You can sell simply for what people are willing to pay if you do so privately or carefully in certain venues. As it stands now, the State (at every level) is literally willing to tax the food off your tables and the clothes off your children's backs.
This will only get worse in 2009. Much, much worse. Plan and act right now to protect the quality of life for yourself and your family. The quality of your life is not the amount of money you make. It is the level of comfort (the food, the shelter, etc.) you can sustain and that level can come largely from "alternative financing" rather than from an official pay stub. Indeed, as long as you sustain a reasonable comfort level - what used to be called 'middle/working class'-- the lower your official wage the better because, then, your taxes will also be lower.
This is not merely a frugal measure. It is a line drawn in the sand by which I say "NO!" to the State. I am mad as hell at having to support with my own life -- which is what my time/labor constitute -- the thieves, hyprocites and parasites who are politicians and the others who slurp from the public trough. No. No. No.
This will only get worse in 2009. Much, much worse. Plan and act right now to protect the quality of life for yourself and your family. The quality of your life is not the amount of money you make. It is the level of comfort (the food, the shelter, etc.) you can sustain and that level can come largely from "alternative financing" rather than from an official pay stub. Indeed, as long as you sustain a reasonable comfort level - what used to be called 'middle/working class'-- the lower your official wage the better because, then, your taxes will also be lower.
This is not merely a frugal measure. It is a line drawn in the sand by which I say "NO!" to the State. I am mad as hell at having to support with my own life -- which is what my time/labor constitute -- the thieves, hyprocites and parasites who are politicians and the others who slurp from the public trough. No. No. No.
An indication of what to expect everywhere you turn in 2009: The New York Daily News reports on the following increases (among others) that will make waking in the morning more expensive for residents of New York State:
Meanwhile, with a 16 billion dollar deficit, Gov. Paterson has announced "521 layoffs." Wow. Out of 250,000 state workers, including employees who track the migration of squirrels, he can cut only 1 out of every 480 jobs? .
Note that Paterson calls "a 1% increase" a cut. That is political speak. I remember how Murray Rothbard used to rail against the idea that a decrease in a tax increase was called a cut. He used pound the table twice as he squawked out in a Brooklynese accent, "Ah...sweetie, what we really need is a cut-cut" -- meaning a decrease-decrease...you know, an actual cut.
Note also the Paterson is running the Kidney Machine Gambit -- that is, cutting schools, hospitals, and nursing homes. In an earlier blog post brad describes this political ploy: When confronted with the need to cut the budget, a bureaucrat or a politician will always begin with the "essential" services -- like schools or hospitals or kidney (dialysis) machines -- rather than the Transgender Interpretive Arts Center or the Hair Stylists Licensing Authority* or some such disposable thing. This, of course, provokes predictable howls of outrage from the public -- "people will die if you cut the budget!" -- and leads to the public demanding that the budget not be cut.
A commentator on the New York Post wrote, The State of New York drove me out of business with laws that were enacted just to generate money for the state. I took a business that was handed down from my grandfather to my father to me and I tried to comply with the mass of regulations that were imposed and was unable to do so. I have been back in New York to visit and have to say that now I could not live there. Tannersville/Hunter is a mere ghost town of what it once was. With the income tax, property tax, and sales tax from the state of New York I would have to make twice what I make here just to maintain the standard of living I enjoy here. I own 150 acres in the Catskills that I will be forced to sell just because I am tired of paying property taxes for a school I attended thirty years ago.
- An iPod state and local tax for "digitally delivered entertainment" - e.g. a song you download.
State sales tax on movie theaters, sporting events, taxis, buses, limousines, cable and satellite TV and radio.
Repeal of the 8-cents-per-gallon sales tax cap on motor and diesel motor fuel; an increase in the auto rental tax.
Tuition increases at SUNY and CUNY, $620 and $600 a year respectively.
A 50 cent tax on cigars. The current tax equals 37% of the wholesale price.
Eliminating tax break on clothes/shoes worth $110 or less.
Higher taxes on wine, beer and flavored malt beverages. 18% tax on non-nutritional drinks -- e.g. soda.
An additional 5% tax on cars costing more than $60,000, aircraft ($500,000+), yachts ($200,000=) and jewelry/ furs ($20,000+).
A host of a fee hikes, including ones related to vehicle licensing/ registration, parks and auto insurance,; a hike in various state fines.
Meanwhile, with a 16 billion dollar deficit, Gov. Paterson has announced "521 layoffs." Wow. Out of 250,000 state workers, including employees who track the migration of squirrels, he can cut only 1 out of every 480 jobs? .
Note that Paterson calls "a 1% increase" a cut. That is political speak. I remember how Murray Rothbard used to rail against the idea that a decrease in a tax increase was called a cut. He used pound the table twice as he squawked out in a Brooklynese accent, "Ah...sweetie, what we really need is a cut-cut" -- meaning a decrease-decrease...you know, an actual cut.
Note also the Paterson is running the Kidney Machine Gambit -- that is, cutting schools, hospitals, and nursing homes. In an earlier blog post brad describes this political ploy: When confronted with the need to cut the budget, a bureaucrat or a politician will always begin with the "essential" services -- like schools or hospitals or kidney (dialysis) machines -- rather than the Transgender Interpretive Arts Center or the Hair Stylists Licensing Authority* or some such disposable thing. This, of course, provokes predictable howls of outrage from the public -- "people will die if you cut the budget!" -- and leads to the public demanding that the budget not be cut.
A commentator on the New York Post wrote, The State of New York drove me out of business with laws that were enacted just to generate money for the state. I took a business that was handed down from my grandfather to my father to me and I tried to comply with the mass of regulations that were imposed and was unable to do so. I have been back in New York to visit and have to say that now I could not live there. Tannersville/Hunter is a mere ghost town of what it once was. With the income tax, property tax, and sales tax from the state of New York I would have to make twice what I make here just to maintain the standard of living I enjoy here. I own 150 acres in the Catskills that I will be forced to sell just because I am tired of paying property taxes for a school I attended thirty years ago.
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