Taxes, Socialism, and Other Things

OMG!  I’m getting so tired of hearing people whine and complain about how they can’t afford rent, can’t feed their kids, have a crappy and expensive public transportation system; poor schooling, over crowding in schools; dirty beggars all over the place, and most of all having to pay taxes.

Seriously, most of these people are the one’s who complain about paying taxes and many of them complain because they don’t want their taxes to help anyone but themselves.  The most recent that I’ve seen was the rise in public transportation fare (here in the Washoe County area of NV).  When we voted for the president, there was also a section for things that you wanted to vote on about our county.  In it, it asked if you wanted more of taxes to the public transportation center to help make it better.  Apparently the “no” vote won because they ended up having to raise prices so that they could provide a better service.  Not surprising at all but apparently it was to a lot of people because it made the local news and news papers.  I believe some of the disabled and elderly were “appalled” because they could barely afford to ride in the first place.  Does this suck? Yes it does but if you didn’t vote or didn’t want more taxes then, don’t complain.  (Which I’m sure many of the elderly did vote but still we’re not all going to be “whole” and young forever, so we will have to deal with what we do when we get there).

Taxes get such a bad name because after all, “Why should I have to work hard all day just so lazy people get the benefit of my tax dollars?”  Of course also because it lowers the amount of money you have to spend on things such as rent, food, fun, and other necessary and unnecessary things.  The things is, if the government processes taxes in the way it’s supposed to, that would mean that the more taxes you pay out the less you have to worry about.

For example: Universal Health Care, yes taxes will rise but guess what?  That also means that if for some reason all your hard work and money saving and spending time comes to an end (even if it’s unlikely to do so), and you get sick or need help you will be seen not only for free but you will also not get a big fat bill in the mail that you have to worry about paying and just letting it go to collection won’t have to be an option.

I once went to the emergency room because I had a sore throat for about three days and it was getting worse.  I was in there literally ten minutes or less (it was three in the morning and I was there with literally three other people).  The doctor decided I just had a cold (after asking if I had insurance, which I had to say no) and gave me a paper telling me to rest, eat soup, and gargle with salt water.  Next thing I know I’m in bed literally sleeping and eating nothing for three more days.  Finally I decided I better go to an Urgent Care clinic, so I called and they told me to just walk in.  I made the half hour drive and $400 dollars later I found out that I had strep that could have put me in the hospital that week, had I not been able to be treated.  Two weeks later, I got a bill from the hospital charging me $200 for the ten minutes I was there.  (At the time it wasn’t a problem for me to pay both bills but still, I would have loved to have that money in my pocket for my family and other things to have to go to two doctors to be taken care of.)

Higher taxes toward public services, any of them, would not only help them run better and have a greatly reduced chance of offending your eyes but they would also cost less for people and whether the economy is good or bad, nobody wants to pay a lot just to ride the bus (even if you don’t ride the bus or care about those who do, it may not always be that way); have old non updated books for schools (after all updated books will keep learning updated and even if you don’t like kids or don’t have kids, you’ll have to live with the poorly educated adults they turn into); welfare systems and homeless shelters may be able to work more efficiently because then they would have more funding and instead of just trying to poorly support them, they would be able to really help them find work and get them the necessities they will need for that.  This would be good because then that man at the corner, who offends the eyes, might not be there…

Taxes can’t save the world but if properly spread out and controlled it can really help.  It’s just frustrating that people would rather complain than pay to have these things.  Because it would send America toward Socialism and honestly I don’t understand why that is such a bad thing.  That is of course why I believe that the US is a capitalist country disguised as a Democratic Republic.

No beginning is easy, nothing planted grows in a day but it seems that people are so impatient.  It’s like, “I’m going to buy this weight loss pill because I can sit on my butt and lose 5+ pounds a week instead of eating right and getting a little exercise and losing 2-5 lbs a week.”  Or instead of buying a bunch of groceries for the week, you just eat at fast food restaurants everyday.  It doesn’t matter that it’s unhealthier and cost more in the long run because it’s convenient and you don’t have to do anything but move your mouth and get your money out.

It makes me even angrier when people complain about the schools being over crowded and teachers being fired…um…I mean laid off.  The schools either can’t afford to build new schools or people vote that they don’t want schools, high school especially, built in their neighborhoods.  I just want to be like, “Stop having kids then! Or at least deal with a school or two being in your neighborhood; at least being willing to pay more taxes so they can build more schools.”  After all, schools are socialized and that means in order to run, they need the publics help.  Of course the poor teachers, since the school systems lack in funding that also means that they have less money to pay the teachers, so what do they do?  They sift through and decided what they deem expendable and cut it.

There are more that I’m sure many of you can add to this both pro and con but at the moment these are the one’s that I’ve been hearing most of the complaints on lately.  I’m told that I’m probably a socialist when people hear my views and find that I don’t claim a party.  I do however vote and because of that, I feel that I have the right to say and complain about what I want.  While technically everyone has that right, it really bothers me when people complain and you find out that they didn’t take the time to vote because they didn’t feel like it or something.  Half the time I feel like voting is worthless but I still do it on the chance that things do change and it really isn’t a waste of time.

Another bothersome thing is the fact that people look at me like I suddenly smell bad as they tell me I have socialist views.  I don’t understand why it’s a bad thing.  If any of you know the answer, please tell me because even now I have not gotten a satisfying answer from any of them.

Side note 1: Did you know that one of the top causes of debt is medical bills?  Duh right?  Yet many still don’t want to pay a higher tax because apparently higher taxes suck, they don’t want to pay for someone else and anything or anyone that has to do with your medical bills have the right to their private practice so then they can charge and cover whatever they want.  I’m sure there’s more but these are the reasons I mostly hear.

Side note 2: Also about the welfare thing, yeah nobody I know likes the idea of being on welfare but guess what: Unless you’ve never worked a day in your life, you’ve been paying taxes toward it and there for are helping or earned the right to use it when you really need it.  And those who haven’t worked a day in your life, if you use the tools they give you or even just their help, you will not be dependant on them your whole life and then your taxes will be going to them anyway and you can think of it as a way to pay them back if it makes you feel better.  So stop being so proud and do what you need to do to get yourself better.

Side note 3: Everyone complains at one time or another.  I know I do, even when I’m not being proactive sometimes.  It’s just frustrating hearing people curse at others about being lazy and lower than them because they don’t have a job.  In most cases, that person doesn’t know the person or the situation they are in and don’t have the right (obviously in my opinion) to say things like that.  It also makes me angry when people who can barely support themselves and will be approved for help (because not all people in need get approved or even the help they need), don’t go and do it because the people mentioned above, made getting help shameful.  It just makes me feel sick to my stomach when people talk about how dirty the public transportation system (and other things made for the public) is, yet they don’t want their taxes to go to making it better or they just didn’t vote because they were lazy.  There are also people like my grandma who instead of reading and having someone explain things she didn’t understand, just votes in a manner that someone else tells them to.  My goodness, she almost got my mom to do that too!  But I sat my mom down and anything she didn’t understand I read and I told her straight out that even if her vote is the opposite of mine, it’s fine as long as she uses her brain instead of someone else’s.  (We live far away from the nearest town so our voting pamphlets get mailed to us.  But there are people who can help explain at the voting booths.  At least, from what I’m told.)