The Nightmare That Has Become The American Dream

Have you ever considered the journey of a dollar as it runs the gauntlet that is the tax system in this country?  Studies have been done on how much the government actually ends up with by the time a dollar, or your yearly salary, emerges on the other side and it is staggering.  In some cases the government, on every level, can take more than 80 percent.

Let’s say you have worked all your life to better your situation.  You went to school, maybe taking night classes, all the while working a job or two.  But you eventually move up the social latter, now earning six figures.  Maybe you have your own business or have achieved a high position with a top company.  You buy a house, some land, maybe even a little farm in the country.  Because of your hard work, your children enjoy a better life than you had at their age.  They can attend college full-time and can enroll at a better school than you could afford.  This can be very satisfying, to leave your children and grandchildren with a better life.  Isn’t that the goal of every decent American?

Now consider the high taxes you must tolerate to do this.  On the federal level, the top rate can run anywhere from 35 to 40 percent, depending on who is in office.  You must also pay Medicare and Social Security taxes, which can be high, especially if you are self-employed.  State governments may also have an income tax of varying degrees, but let’s just say an extra 10 percent.  Most states also impose sales taxes on every thing you buy, even food.  Local governments levy property taxes, which can be down-right crippling, and can also tack on a few percentages to the sales tax, generally to promote “tourism.”  Additional federal excises are imposed on things like tires, health care, phone bills, and gasoline.  This is why a six-figure salary, in some parts of the United States, may very well be considered poverty, as there’s scarcely little to actually live on when the taxes are paid.  And though they’ve taken it away from you and your family, much of it goes to others, less fortunate they say, but those who won’t work at any rate, while still more is thrown away on stupid projects like “bridges to nowhere.”

Yet all of this does not take into account what you have to do if you own a business of your own, the taxes and regulations that border on the ridiculous. 

But after all this hassle, with the little dab you have left, you manage to put something extra away for retirement.  Maybe you scrimp and save, working extra jobs, to invest in an IRA, more land, and the like.  After a lifetime of work, you manage to create an estate valued at more than a million dollars, or more, all the while hordes of government bureaucrats hang all over you.  But even though Uncle Sam has his greedy, outstretched hand right there beside you, he never once lifted it to help you during your 60-hour work weeks.

So at the end of your life, when you’ve done all that could be expected of any honest citizen, the Lord finally calls you home.  You’ve worked hard, paid an enormous amount of taxes to support the government, but more importantly you’ve given your children and grandchildren a brighter future.  You pass away peacefully one morning.  But the tax man cometh still.  After your spouse receives a nice Social Security benefit of less than $300, the government takes 55 percent of your estate!  Even in death, thieves continue to take.  In many cases, children end up selling the family estate to pay the bill. 

After considering all this legalized theft, stop to consider what is the biggest obstacle to achieving the American Dream?  No it’s not racism, or sexism, or any of the many other “isms” we have crafted in this age of liberalism!  It’s government, on all levels!  Oh what people in the country could achieve if we had a government that stayed out of our hair!

This is not what the Founders of this nation intended.  They envisioned a place where men could live free and pursue happiness, whatever that happiness may be.  But we have taken that wonderful gift, purchased with their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor,” and are on the verge of completely destroying it.

So contemplate on these things and ask yourself which candidate will best protect and restore what the Founders bestowed on all of us and which nominee will make the nightmare one in which we will never wake up!  The answer should be obvious!