Taxes: They seem like the greatest burden on our financial well-being that anyone can imagine. To hear the conservatives tell it, the liberals are taking all their money away and giving it to the low-lifes who never work and yet live in luxury. And yet they continue to vote for people who compound the problem at virtually every level of government by caving into the very groups that are trying to suppress us.
The corporations, at some point, realized that they could use the tax system to their advantage. And I'm not just talking about sheltering income outside of the country. They negotiate with the towns, counties, cities, and or states for the lowest possible tax rate, or for free facilities (football stadium, anyone?) pitting one area against another, shifting the tax burden for all of the public infrastructure that they use (water, sewage, highways, bridges, etc.) onto the public. They convince you - and the government officials - that the jobs they create will provide the people with wages so THEY can pay the taxes. And pay we do.
To the conservatives I say, the government is taking but a very small piece of your income for the poor. In fact, the reason your property tax is so high that in many municipalities, 30% or more of the property is sitting there tax free (churches, businesses with PILOT agreements, tax breaks and incentives) and you make up the difference. The businesses are paying bupkis to keep income taxes down - they are purposely shifting the tax burden on you. And we keep giving them more and more tax breaks and offering more and more free services. They are breaking our backs!
For all of our generosity, the businesses are breaking unions, reducing benefits, offering minimum wage jobs and using all the resources they have at hand to block increases in wages.
As I have said repeatedly - the corporations want to own your ass.
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