Listening to KPBS on the commute in.
They were talking about a new “Paid Family and Medical Leave Act” working its way through the California legislature. For only $40 per year, shared between employees and employers, we might get some portion of our pay back if we take leave to assist a sick family member.
Just what we need, another tax.
Call me a raving Libertarian — I generally consider myself a liberal Libertarian, or perhaps an anarchocapitalist — but I think the government already takes way too much of my income for questionable schemes. Why aren’t politicians working on ways to reduce our tax load? Easy answer: because money equals power, and the more taxes, the larger the government, the more powerful the politicians.
I know taxes can’t be eliminated, and I have some pet projects of my own. I think the government should pay for NPR, sidewalks, efficient public transportation, and basic health care for the poor — because that costs us less than having them use emergency facilities. And condoms for whoever wants them but can’t afford them, which costs a lot less than the alternative.
People seem to think that businesses are there just to provide them with benefits and somewhere to sit around surfing the internet. In reality, every employee has to earn about 150% of their salary just for a business to keep the doors open. I took a single day last month for jury duty — sat there and wasn’t selected — got a check from California for $1.50, and it probably cost my employer $150 to have me gone.
But there’s way too much money being taken out of our pockets to pay for things like sports stadiums — taxing everyone to support the super-wealthy — wildly overpriced electrical power contracts, and bombing the poor in countries on the other side of the world. And yet when we’re forced to overpay income taxes, people think they’re being given a gift when they get a little bit back the next year.