I'm a Government Slave 220 Days Out Of The Year

Between SSI, Federal Tax and State Tax, I'm in the 40% tax bracket. For the purposes of this discussion, I'll use a nice round 100k to do my calculations. I won't say what I earn, but It's not $100k/yr. I also didn't say it's not 120K or 80k, so don't try to guess :-)

100,000 x .40 = 40,000

So, on the face of it, a person earning 100k pays 40k in taxes. However, there's also money you never see, not even on your W2. As I understand it, for every dollar that you pay in W2 taxes and SSI, your employer is required to match it. So for every dollar that you pay in taxes, that's 2 dollars you technically should be earning. So...

100,000 + 40,000 = 140,000 Actual Potential Pay
40,000 + 40,000 = 80,000 Actual Income Taxes

So, to calculate how much you'd actually pay in taxes:

80,000 / 140,000 = 57%

So, stripping away one of the hidden tricks that the government uses to hide your actual annual worth, the income tax you actually pay is 57%.

Add into that all the taxes you pay when spending your income: sales taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, automobile taxes, utility taxes, sin taxes, and user "fees". You now easily exceed 60% of your actual income going to the government.

365 x .60 = 219

So, give a day, I work under duress for the government 220 days out of the year. Now, I understand that there are things we need to government to pay for like roads, law enforcement, fire fighters, judges, and politicians. But with the exception of these, everyone should be paying their own way through life. Hell, even roads could be privatized more than they are. And all those social programs can be filled by private entities and actual charity, instead of the forced "charity" and bureaucratic systems we have in place now.

When I mentioned this situation to my fiance, she told me that when people ask me what I do, I should respond "I work for the government 220 days out of the year."

All I keep thinking throughout the day is: Damn it! Give me my life back!

Global Warming Fanatics Have an Epiphany

Finally, someone posts on SlashDot something that I, and many other less than liberal people have been saying for a some time now: The sun "may" be warming the Earth and Mars simultaneously.

No s**t Sherlock. F'ing martian's and their SUVs.

Update 3/12/07: Here's further proof that these people are more dangerous than global warming itself.