Have you ever thought about what it would feel like to write weekly checks for our taxes? Consider the following scenario:
An employee is paid $900/wk. He is married with two children. Each week he gets a check for $900 on Friday. When he gets home with that paycheck he gets out his checkbook and writes the following checks:
$42.88 for federal income tax
$55.80 for social security
$13.05 for medicare
$24.00 for state income taxes
Leaving the family with $764.27. Each week this is repeated until the employee has had enough!! He’s tired of writing all of these checks every week! He’s disgusted at how much of his money is leaving his checking account every month! So he decides to do something about it. Three years later, after a huge public outpouring of support, he is elected to the Senate where he introduces a bill to simplify the tax code, limit government spending and allow Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money. End of story.
The sad reality of our current system is that it is so simple and painless that we hardly even notice how much money gets sent to the state and federal government (unless you are self-employed, reporting your income on a Schedule C, in which case you are painfully aware of how much goes to the government for Social Security and Medicare.)
So when you get your next paycheck, look at the breakdown of taxes. You’re okay with it now. But ask yourself if you would still be okay with it if you had to personally hand write all of those checks every week. Every single week for your entire working career.