I had a conversation at my workplace with someone who is a democrat. Before anyone gets upset, this was an adult conversation, with both sides meeting mutually in the middle, and opinions shared, not fought over. The perspective this individual stated was that low income, high crime areas benefited from programs like the affordable care act and what he called “free money.” He insisted that when health care and money was made available to the area he is from, that crime rates dropped.
My retort was simple yet complex in nature. The affordable care act made my insurance rates more than double so that other people could have better insurance and pay less. The free money he was talking about is not free, but comes from my tax payer dollars. We have certain entities in place to help people using tax payer dollars. That is part of how our country runs, and their are people who truly need it.
The problem with this conversation came to when there are increases in the taxation to fund all these “free money” programs Biden and Harris have planned. I understand the pandemic hasn’t been easy on a lot of people, and I should be happy to be working. More on that part later. Let us say that currently, I take around 64% of my paycheck home. Tax hikes to pay for these programs allow me to only bring home 50% of my paycheck. I am essentially losing 22% of my take home pay. Maybe only 14% of gross, but 22% of my net pay.I lose almost a 1/4 of my pay to take care of my bills and my family.
These numbers are arbitrary to an extent. The point is that I cannot pay my bills now. Instead of making $1,000/paycheck I am only making $780/paycheck. I am losing $440/month. This is so that other people who are not working can live comfortably. Without being able to pay my bills, I would have to choose between food and other bills. I am suffering while working so others who are not can live with normalcy. This is my problem with all these “free money” programs, somebody has to pay for them.
Ironically enough, I saw a commercial for the organ donor program. Personally, I have always been a part of it. I joined the Marine Corps and decided if anything happened to me, and I could help someone else, let’s do it. Anyway, they had a slogan, “If nobody gives, nobody gets.” This makes sense for organ donation, but it seems like that is the way the government wants it’s people to act with money. One step closer to communism.
The conversation grew to the election and if it were Trump who won, their would be riots and cities would be burning still. My issue with the riots is people stealing property and destroying their own peoples businesses. The town has issues with education and such, and local governments are to corrupt to really care about doing anything about it. They just rake in the dollars, and the towns get crappier. In admission, I understand that I don’t know what it is like in what was termed the “ghetto” in our conversation. My bubble truly is where I live.
I know that I have neighbors that I hate, but I cannot afford to move just because there is someplace better. If you live in a high crime area, I understand the same principle applies. I think there are many things that come into play from the political game to the generality of humanity, but I cannot agree to the old saying of robbing paul to pay peter. I should not be forced to change my lifestyle (not one of excess) to bring up others lifestyle.
That being stated, I will finish off with one final thought. America lost it’s soul when went from being a production economy to a consumption economy. When you do nothing but consume, and you bring nothing to the table, eventually you lose your usefulness. America is at that point where we need to produce something. Low barrier to entry jobs, like the old steel mills and lumber yards, with retirements to match so people want to stay. Basically, we need our country to roll back a few decades when it comes to how our economy works, and roll ahead a few decades with the human interaction to find a decent place to be. Just remember, opinions are just that, opinions. Everyone has one, and they can be talked about. If you cannot, than don’t. People are people, and some get upset. At the end of the day, we just need to stay prepared.
Cogito Aprendo Prepping and Views 