So what if every single tax deduction taken for each child in the U.S. was not permitted, or not taken, or not allowed to be taken? I'm not sure of what the dollar amount is per child....maybe $2,000 or so?? What if those deductions were actually not removed. What if that dollar amount was allowed to stand. Or, horrors!, what if parents were actually required to pay for each of their children simply for having them....for allowing them to consume space, air, water, food, etc., on this planet. Perhaps there could be a sliding scale. Families would be permitted to have one, or two, children without penalty -- but beyond that they would be required to actually dish out so many thousands of dollars each year for each of their children.
Consider what that would do to our tax base. Add to our bottom line instead of take away from it. I've never understood why we give tax deductions to children. When they are occupying space on this earth, they eat food from it, they crap on it, they yell and scream on it, they require so many resources from Mother Earth -- and yet they not only are not required to pay for all of that but they actually get to charge the U.S. Government for it. In essence, I am paying for it. And that doesn't sit well with me. Oh, I know, I know....there are million and one reasons for wanting to fund children, fund early childhood development and all of that. And I am well aware that the children of today are the leaders, educators, and adults of tomorrow (and that scares the living hell out of me, quite frankly.....).
I will never understand why a family of two parents and, oh say, four, five, six or even more children are permitted to pay tax on two people instead of six or eight or ten. I don't get it. They dirty the earth, they require so much in the way of products, toys, plastics, "things" made in China, giant double-wide strollers, fuel, petroleum products, and the like. And the parents have to have a giant minivan and pay for the gas to operate it. The hole just gets deeper the more I think about it. And the noise pollution level operates at such a higher level with yelling, screaming, crying. I hate noise and this just adds to my furor.
I have educator friends and teachers who disagree with me wholeheartedly on this. But I can take it. I just don't believe how a guy with no children should be required to fork over extra tax money each year to help take care of those who abuse and neglect the reasonable number of decent children in this world.....all the while the actual parents pay less. One of life's mysteries.
11 comments:
I so totally agree with you! This has never made any sense to me and it really pisses me off. Another thing, when we were trying to get health benefits for domestic partners some of the people I worked with were irate. I replied by asking them why I should have to subsidize the health costs of their children? Shouldn't they pay full price for more than one or maybe two? Why did I have to pay for all their ex wives and multiple brats?
I give the skank eye to anyone with more than 2 kids, it's not acceptable to contribute to the over population of the planet and our resources. Why do they think their genes are so special? grrrrr....
Amen.
Hear! Hear! I so totally agree with you! This attitude of rewarding families for more and more children never did make any sense to me while at the same time I, as a single man have to pay a much higher rate of taxes because I don't have children. I am in effect being penalized for not having children. Of course I realize why these laws were passed because most of our legistlators are parents who have children and want that family vote. And yet many of these same lawmakers get their ass out of gear at the mere thought of me and my partner of 46 years having the same tax responsibilities as a opposite sex married couple. I'll show your post to my partner (who never reads blogs) but he will read yours. His main problem with families that keep pumping out multiple children is what that is doing to our planet. We don't hate kids per say (I'm not real fond of screaming children running through a restaurant while I'm paying a lot of money for a 'dining experience') but this country has got to stop paying people to have kids. At least stop making us single folk pay more. Stop penalizing us.
my tax man tells me the tax system is full of quirks and pet projects etc. and will never be simplified as there is too much economy to keep in complex.
Okay, I'm no tax expert here (I'm not smart enough to fill out my own tax forms), but I'm pretty sure that on a W-4 form that the allowances for deductions include EVERYONE. You claim yourself, your spouse (if you are married), and your dependents. You can't claim a kid as a dependent once they are old enough to pay taxes and claim themselves. If I'm reading this right then at least this part of the tax code is fair, in terms of each person is worth the same amount of deductions. Or maybe I'm totally missing something and you can fill me in. And yes, I do agree that other aspects of taxes are very discriminatory.
And Jonna, I have four kids, each whom I consider to be a resource themselves to life on this planet. I give the skank eye to anyone with more than one dog... ;-)
Bravo! Thanks for being brave enough to say this. I've often wondered why breeders get rewarded for overpopulating the earth yet DINKs like us get penalized.
CHAD: Sort of logic, but not really. I still don't think that anyone should be permitted to have, say, 10 kids...and to actually require those who have zero kids to pay for it. Makes zero sense. And the dog thing....we don't get to make deductions for pets. And with same-sex couples, no federal recognition on the tax level with makes us pay more taxes than married couple...shame on our nation. It's a mess.
I hear what you are saying, but there are so many other issues I have with our tax base this would never crack my top 10 list.
I'd rather ask why are we allowing charitable donations to be tax deductions? Let's see how committed people of faith are in supporting their religious institutions when they can't write it off...
In lieu of the tax breaks for children... lets consider the property and income taxes we'd be able to have if religious institutions had to pay taxes.
Off my soap box now,
BosGuy
Thanks, Arnie. I do recognize that there are many things about the tax code that aren't fair.
My newest term for children is "uterus turd".
Because that's basically what they are.
It will take you weeks to get all those knives out of your back.
I agree. I live in the burbs where life is all about kids. There's a school every couple of miles it seems. All the recreation areas are geared to children. No adult zones out in these parts.
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