So, I got my first paycheck of 2013 and right away noticed that something was…different. Different is never good. Different as in _smaller_.
How much smaller?
Comparing my witholdings from the last pay period of 2012 to the first one in 2013, I see the Social Security monster decided to take an additional $75 bite out of my ass. Every pay period. But that’s fine, because I’m sure when I get ready to retire, that money is going to be _there_ for me. And, clearly, I’m one of the “rich” this country needs so badly to tax more.
/sarcasm off.
$75 x 26 pay periods = $1950 per year. Damn. I guess I can’t afford that yacht now.
If it makes you feel better, the Governor of Taxachusetts just proposed raising the state income tax > 20% to do some infrastructure projects.
From the state that brought you the “big dig” and the subway extension that’s was supposed to be finished 3 years ago, but is now planned to start in 2019 comes, “hey we’ll take $1 billion dollars of your money, then we promise to start getting some work done around here.”
Why would it make me feel any better that someone else is going to be taxed more than I will be? That only makes Democrats feel better.
“And, clearly, I’m one of the “rich” this country needs so badly to tax more.”
It has nothing to do with being rich. Everyone’s withholding went up, as a result of the expiration of the two-year reduction in the rate.
Am I the only one who remembers being pleasantly surprised by the _opposite_ of this effect in 2010? Really?
Come on, matt! That comment I made about Democrats didn’t bait you at _all_?
Of course I remember 2010. But no one bitches about having more money. It’s a lot easier to budget for. $75 every two weeks is about what I spend on food. I’m sure with 2 hungry mouths to feed you’re even less happy about having your take-home nut shrunken.
Meh. I’m registered as a Democrat, because most of the local elections that affect me take place as Democratic primaries, so I need to be. But I agree that the party as a whole is a dysfunctional mess.
I’m not especially happy about the loss in take-home, but I’m more annoyed about the fact that Social Security is almost certainly going to be means-tested by the time we’re old enough to retire. I’ve been salting away money for retirement since I started working, and I’m pretty sure my reward for that will be never collecting on my “entitlements”.
So, you’re annoyed by the fact that you, a hard working, saving, responsible member of society, is going to get shafted, and someone who didn’t work and didn’t save and wasn’t responsible will reap the benefits?
Welcome to Conservatism, matt.
I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that SS will likely be essentially welfare for old folks in 30 years. Like you, I’ve been saving for my retirement with that in mind. My goal is saving 10% pretax income for retirement, and I’ve been doing pretty well in hitting that target.
Oh, and if you’re talking about dysfunctional messes, you’d be hard-pressed to one-up the Republican party. They can’t seem to think of anything better than pandering to birthers, “oppressed” Christians, and octogenarians. It’s a wonder there’s any left in Congress, at all.
I think SS was always intended to be welfare for old folks; remember, our parents’ generation (for the most part) expected a nice defined-benefit pension, often with medical, after they put in thirty years and collect a gold watch. If that falls through, at least SS will keep you from eating catfood.
I think the theme of this discussion is “it’s not about how much of my paycheck is gone, it’s that I’d to see something more for it than a politician telling me it should give me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that we live in the kind of country that does some unspecified and possibly relevant things for some its citizens, sometimes.”
I don’t mind paying taxes, but I’d really rather that they go toward maintaining the infrastructure of America than Kabul.
Driving around several states over the last few years I haven’t seen any correlation between tax-rate and quality of infrastructure.
When comparing the taxes of, say, South Carolina to those of NY, New Yorkers will inevitably shoot back with “Well, you guys don’t have to pay for snow removal down there!”
Yeah. My property taxes were 1/3 of what they would have been in NY on a similar property because we didn’t have to pay for some dump trucks and a bunch of NaCl. Try again.
That being said, I’m with matt on this one. Eisenhower, a Republican, gave us one of the greatest automotive infrastructures the world had ever seen up till then. What happened to it? Ask Detroit.
Wait, there are places in New York that have snow removal? Buffalo’s philosophy for residential neighborhoods seems to be “Stop whining, you wuss. It’ll melt by May.”
Our city’s policy on snow removal is: We’ll dump extra snow on your sidewalks, then fine you if you don’t clean it up, or if you move it back onto the road, or if you clean off a parking spot onto a sidewalk.
Mayor Joe curtatone says: “win-win bab