Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site teldata.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!teltone!teldata!tac
From: tac@teldata.UUCP (Tom Condon)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: taxes
Message-ID: <270@teldata.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Mar-84 13:12:25 EST
Article-I.D.: teldata.270
Posted: Fri Mar 23 13:12:25 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Mar-84 09:23:22 EST
References: <2250@harpo.UUCP>
Organization: Teltone Corp., Kirkland, WA
Lines: 86

, (sop to blank line eaters--consider it a religious sacrifice)

The question has been raised as to whether the taxpayers out
there will continue to quietly shell out their hard earned phony
dollars when the tax rates reach 50%.  I'd like to tell you a
little story about the argument over the graduated income tax
amendment.  It seems that when the law was proposed there was
a doomsayer (they are ALWAYS right - eventually) who stood up
and said,"If we pass this crazy law the tax rate could go as
high as..." and he paused in thought and came up with a figure
which he thought was impossible,"...three percent (3%)."  Well,
everyone decided that he was just a mental case, "'cause we'd
never let our government do anything that radical, we're a 
democracy."  Now history has shown us which one was right and
left us a nice lesson too.  Don't give a government *ANY* power
which you do not want abused sorely!  (Incidentally, modern
research has found that the entire government budget COULD be
funded by a 5% NON-graduated tax if there were no deductions.)

Now while I am at it, the question of the utility of allowing 
the U.S. government to handle all of our big brother functions:
A reputable accounting firm did a study of just how much it costs
to get one dollar ($1) into the hands of the poor and needy.  If
you walk up and give a poor person the dollar it costs nothing!
If you give the dollar to a church or organized religion for the
purpose of contribution to the needy (not a church contribution)
it costs $.07 to get the dollar to the needy.  If you give the 
dollar to a charitable organization (e.g. salvation army) it costs
$.15 to get to the needy.  If you give that dollar to a private
foundation (i.e. the Rockafeller foundation) it costs $.25 for the
needy to receive it.  Now I am going to put the answer (hopefully)
on the next scroll page so you can think about it and guess at
what it cost to get that dollar to the poor and needy if you give
it to the Federal Government.  Just imagine all of that bureaucratic
efficiency in action.
OK, got a number in your head?  If so go to the next page.














To get one dollar ($1) to the poor and needy through the U.S. government
costs $4.  Now this is not all of the tax dollars, just those that go
to the various departments whose function is to give money to the poor
and needy.  For every five dollars we put in they get one!  Now what 
would happen if we all kept that five dollars back from our taxes and
gave three of it to a poor person?  The poor would get three times as
much, and we would each have an extra two to spend.  Now, doesn't that
make you want to vote Democrat in the next election?  (NO!  I am not pushing
the Republicans but I try to remember where the Great Society came
from.)

As a final word for today, I would like to discus "Impeachment".  The
press, in conjunction with the politicians, has endeavored to make this
into a dirty word.  It isn't, any more than right to trial by a jury
of your peers is a bad idea.  They are both *OUR* checks on the over-
bearing power of the government.  They NEED to be exercised when the
time is right to keep the government within the bounds set out for it
when the Constitution was written.  ANY elected or appointed official
can be removed from office by recall or impeachment.  That is how WE
get rid of the snakes.  If the Supreme Court fails to hear an important
case because of the legal ramifications, we should go about getting
rid of the obstructers of justice.  If a president or congressman votes
contrary to the promises which got him elected then he should be removed
(why keep an known liar in office?).  *WE* are responsible for insuring
our own freedom from the bureaucracy, that is why our government was
designed around a "Checks and Balances" system, so we could!

I apologize for the length of this, but it comes from the heart.

P.S.  Never trust a fanatic (including me).

	    From the Soapbox of
	    Tom Condon     {...!uw-beaver!teltone!teldata!tac}

	    A Radical A Day Keeps The Government At Bay.