The bottom line up front is that all working Americans and all Americans, receiving and collecting some types of funds, must be paying federal income taxes so to support the government’s expenditures such as infrastructures, the national defense, and most importantly social services such as Welfare, Unemployment, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc. However, according to the Tax Policy Center and a Fox News Poll, as of September 2012, 46% of Americans are not paying federal income taxes.

Federal income tax is 10% for individuals earning between $0.00 and $8,700.00, 15% for individuals earning between $8,701.00 and $35,350.00, 25% for individuals earning between $35,351.00 and $85,650.00, 28% for those earning between $85,651.00 and $178,650.00, 33% for those earning between $178,651.00 and $388,350.00, and 35% for individuals earning over $388,350.00.

Based on the numbers above, don’t you think the federal government is unfairly and unjustly extorting you and robbing you blind of your money so it can prevent you from achieving the American dream? Don’t you feel that all Americans, regardless of their incomes, should be contributing [evenly] to their country? Don’t you feel that the American taxation system is unfair, discriminatory, prejudicial, unjust, and inequitable?

To better answer these questions, we will use simple algebra formulas with low numbers so we don’t confuse ourselves and those, who like us, hate math.

Let’s say that you and friend go to the store. You purchase a SONY 42” LCD TV for $800.00 whereas your friend purchases the same brand but a 50” for $1,200.00. The sale tax rate in your state is 10%. At the checkout, you pay $800.00 plus $80 in sale tax and your friend pays $1,200.00 plus $120 in sale tax. You see, your friend pays more in taxes than you do although the sale tax is the same because, as opposed to federal income tax, sale tax is not based on one’s ability to pay but on a flat tax rate paid by all regardless of incomes or the fair market value of the product.

Now, let’s do the same thing for federal income tax expect this time we will use actual numbers and actual tax brackets. You earn $8,700.00 a year and you pay 10% to the IRS whereas your friend earns $12.000.00 a year and he pays 15% to the IRS. At the end of the year, you pay $870.00 but your friend pays $1,800.00 in federal income taxes.

This means that he pays two times more ($930) than you do and he only takes home more than $2,370.00 than you do. Now just imagine your cousin earning $35.350.00 with a 25% a year tax rate; he pays IRS $8,837.500, which is more than five times more than you do. Now imagine it is you earning $35.350.00 a year and you pay 25% in in tax while your cousin is only paying 10%.

Would not it be better to take home more pay? Taking home more of our paychecks instead of having the government taxing a big chunk out of it would have led to a stronger middle class; a stronger middle class that would be able to afford to send their children to colleges instead of having them take on too many student loans, which put them in debts even before they start working toward the American Dream.

Congress does not see it that way because rather than making America a society of opportunities, they are implementing tax policies that are making America becoming a society of dependency. The less we take home, the likely we will depend on the government to give us whatever we cannot afford. And the more they give us, the likely we will vote for them in general elections because we feel they are in our best interests.

If we were not paying other people’ taxes, we would have been able to save for raining days or for a trip to the island. If we were not contributing too much as opposed to others, many of us would not be relying on food stamps to keep their head above waters. If all Americans were [evenly supporting] government’s expenditures, Americans would have been more confident about their future and the future of America.

Bobb Q Rousseau