| So imagine my surprise--well, it's not really surprise anymore--when I found out that the new tax deal coming from the White House will raise MY taxes. The Republicans have fought tooth and nail for tax cuts for the rich. The Democrats offered some halfhearted resistance on behalf of the middle class and the long-term unemployed. But who is standing up for ME?
Why will my taxes go up this year? Because the new tax deal failed to include an extension of the Making Work Pay tax credit:
The proposal does not include an extension of Mr. Obama's signature tax cut, the Making Work Pay credit, which provided a credit of up to $400 for individuals and $800 for families of low and moderate income. Instead, the plan creates a one-year reduction in Social Security payroll taxes, which are generally levied on the first $106,800 of income. For an individual earning $110,000, that provision would reduce payroll taxes by $2,136.
Although the $120 billion payroll tax reduction offers nearly twice the tax savings of the credit it replaces, it will nonetheless lead to higher tax bills for individuals with incomes below $20,000 and families that make less than $40,000. That is because their payroll tax savings are less than the $400 or $800 they will lose from the Making Work Pay credit.
This makes perfect sense in the Orwellian world in which we live. Republicans complain about all those lazy people just sitting around collecting government benefits and then they levy a $400 tax hike on the people who are trying to do the "right thing" by working even if it means taking a low-wage job right now. We just had to get a tax deal done because it's "crazy" to raise anyone's taxes "in a recession." Except mine.
Now, I'm sure $400 bucks a year doesn't sound like a lot to most of you. But right now that's more than I make in two weeks. Even when I had a decent (by comparison) salary as a TA it would have been about one week's worth of pay. And it doesn't just effect us uneducated and unskilled losers who are working part-time for minimum wage. A person could be making up to $9.50 an hour at a full-time job and this new tax deal would still raise his or her taxes. That's the majority of people working retail jobs, call-center jobs, and service jobs.
Here in northern West Virginia, those also represent the majority of jobs, period. Isn't it odd, then, that our newly elected "Democratic" senator, Joe Manchin, joined Republicans in filibustering the bill that would have so onerously raised taxes on people making $20,000 a MONTH but he seems to be just fine with the new "compromise" that would raise taxes on people making less than that in a year. I guess this is how he thanks me for using some of my underemployed free time to write diaries and letters to the editor and to make phone calls on his campaign's behalf. Thanks, Senator Manchin! Of course, what am I going to do? Donate money that I don't have to his next opponent?
Perhaps some of my conservative friends out there might think me hypocritical. Oh, it was okay when just rich people were getting a tax hike, but now that it's you you're upset! But I'm not being hypocritical. There's a good reason for raising taxes on the rich. They are the ones who can afford a tax increase! And in the House tax cut bill, even the rich get a tax cut on their first quarter of a million dollars of income. They just didn't get the double bonus round of tax cuts.
Furthermore, I'd even be willing to pay some higher taxes if everyone else was going to. I'd be perfectly happy if all the tax cuts were allowed to expire. We could use that money to pay down the debt and invest in America. We could rebuild infrastructure, improve education and train people for a clean energy future. More importantly, we could use that money for an honest to goodness jobs program in this country.
But wait a minute, my Republican and conservaDem friends will say, this tax cut deal is all about JOBS! "You can't raise taxes during a recession," they will say. Well I have news for you: WE ARE NOT IN A RECESSION. The recession ended in June of 2009. We have had economic growth for a year and a half. American corporations made record profits in the third quarter of 2010. As I wrote in a previous diary, the "economy" is just fine.
And as one of today's rec list diaries clearly demonstrates, tax cuts for the wealthy did not create jobs over the past ten years and there is no reason to think that extending those tax cuts will create jobs (in America, anyway) today. We had ten years of tax cuts for the rich and we're now at 9.6% unemployment. Millions more, like me, are severely underemployed. It's not because we're in a recession or because American corporations aren't making money hand over fist or because the rich just don't have enough money. American corporations simply aren't hiring here.
And why should they? High unemployment is great for business. Every new job opening has around 7 to 9 applicants these days. I was told that one of the jobs I applied for (that was part time and paid minimum wage) had 65 applicants. I made it to the "second round" of interviews on that one and was even offered the position, but it turned out to be less hours than the job I already have. Contrary to Republican opinion, people aren't just sitting around on their asses collecting a government check. People are out there trying to work and there simply aren't enough openings.
For more on this problem--the simple fact that we have more people-hours than we have work that needs done (or at least work some rich guy is willing to pay for), check out this great diary from a few days ago by RiseUpEconomics. I also have written about this problem before in a series called "Why Do We Want Jobs?" parts one and two.
Unemployment is also great for corporations because it means the employees they DO have are all scared to death of losing their jobs. They can get employees to work longer hours without pay. They can get employees to accept a reduction to part-time with lost benefits. They can ignore employment and consumer regulations because employees will be scared to blow the whistle. High unemployment is great for big business.
And the new tax cut deal does almost nothing to solve this rather intractable problem. American corporations are not investing in Americans. Ten years of tax giveaways to the rich has created a three-class system in America. You have the super rich who are doing just fine, making record profits, investing overseas and living lavish lifestyles here at home. You have a second class of people, probably the vast majority, who are severely over-worked, spending 50 or 60 hours a week working while not being compensated fairly. Then you have the rest of us in a class of unemployed or underemployed people who can't break into the work force because all of you frightened workers are picking up all the slack you can and letting the super rich get away with working you like dogs. And you are probably rightly scared because one of us looking for work would eagerly take your place.
The super rich have divided us one against the other for far too long now. They pit 7 to 9 of us against one another for every job opening. They have tried to exploit racial differences and gender differences and differences in sexual orientation. They pit those who are working against those "lazy" people who are unemployed or underemployed who are lucky to have time on a Thursday afternoon to sit down and write a whiny diary about how evil rich people are. They hold tax cuts for the middle class hostage until they get their double bonus tax giveaway but have no problem getting rid of a tax break for the working poor called "Making Work Pay."
Could it get any more clear? They are doing their best to make sure work does NOT pay. They want a neo-feudal society where you start out in debt via student loans and then never make enough to be free again. They want intense competition among the masses over their table scraps. They want us to be fighting for the right to serve our corporate lords and kiss their corporate asses. Well when are we going to stop kissing their asses and start kicking their asses?
Who is going to fight for us? Who is going to fight for me? Who is going to say "Sorry, Lord Goldman Sachs, I'm not going to toil away to make you richer in return for the scraps that trickle down from your table while you use me as a stool." Who is going to say, "Sorry, Lord Exxon, you're not going to lay us off cause there's more of us than there are of you!"
Maybe I'm ranting now but I have absolutely fucking had it. I'm educated. I'm skilled. I've run through two full ink cartridges in my printer due to the number of applications I've sent in. What kind of fucking society is it that has me shelving books and checking people out at a counter for a lousy 26 hours a week? What kind of society is it that thinks it's okay to pay ANYBODY $7.25 an hour given what things cost in this country and then turn around and give those people a tax hike?
I go to job interviews and they all want to know if I'm a "positive person." Well who the fuck could be positive given the record inequality and poverty in the richest country in the history of the world? Who the fuck remains optimistic when just spent hundreds of billions on a war of aggression that we were lied into and then we not only don't punish the people who lied us into it, we re-elect them and then give them huge tax breaks? What rational or sane person would feel generally "positive" right now?
This latest news about a tax hike for the working poor is just the last straw. I'm madder than hell and I want to FIGHT. But fight whom? With what? I've already made all the calls and e-mails I can stomach to my representative and my senators and my president. I've already applied for meaningful work everywhere I can think of. Corporations don't give a shit about me. Government doesn't give a shit about me. Or you. Or anyone who isn't making seven figures. So where the hell do we go? Where can we turn? Where is this great socialist leader all the Republicans are scared of so we can vote for HIM or HER next election?
I'm ready to stand up and DEMAND to be treated like an equal, like a person, like a human being. But one person standing up and screaming into the wind doesn't make a bit of difference. Corporations will continue fucking us over until WE stand up as ONE and demand that we all be treated fairly or NONE of us are going to keep playing the fucking rigged game.
The people with jobs have to start demanding they be compensated fairly. They have to demand adequate pay and benefits. They have to speak up when corporations break the rules. And most importantly, they have to combat the fear of not having a job. The day when the majority of people are fine with saying "Fuck you, I'm not putting up with your shit even if it means I'm out on the street," we will ALL have a job and good pay and good benefits. The moment we lose our fear and say "I'd rather crash this system than continue to aid and abet it," the system will reform. But as long as we are scared that will never happen.
Sorry this turned into a rant. But I'm fightin' mad with no one really to fight.
Anyone else feel the same way? |
