and i hope they take their ramen noodles from them and shove them straight up.....need i say more?

I wish it was that easy. But I have heard of more than one have the judge take the car they drove to court in away from them.

Bus fare is a bitch....

no shit!? really? i freakin love that! take the car...rented spinner rims and all! SAWHEET!

It's an example, use any numbers. Say two people work for $1 an hour. One person works 9 hours and one person works 11 hours. If everybody with under $10 gets $5 of free preschool, then the person with $9 will have $9 and $5 worth of preschool. The person with $11 will have to pay $5 of his own money for the preschool, and end up with only $6. They both have $5 worth of preschool, but the person who worked two more hours ends up with 3 less dollars. Not to mention the higher taxes the harder worker pays. Those tax dollars pay for the other person's free preschool.

The person that works harder and ends up with less to show for it is going to be pissed.

The person that gets free stuff, and gets to keep his own money, is going to say the system is great!

well put flint. well put.

Well the original graph is gone, because it was originally constructed for the website of a local community weekly, but here it is:

http://cellar.org/2011/MoneyEarned.jpg

First thing I notice is the minimum wage earner paid $1,225 in Federal income taxes and somehow got a tax credit of $5,020. Obviously that won't happen.

Second thing I notice is this huge number ($16,500) for Medicaid and CHIP. I'm going to go ahead and guess that this is the dues paid, not the amount of services delivered. I'm also going to go ahead and guess that the $60K worker gets health benefits on the job and this was not calculated into the table.

There ya go Flint, I've removed $20K from the minimum wage earner and now they make half what the $60K worker makes. And not only that: a majority of the rest of their spending is strictly dictated on the shittiest possible housing and $500/month of food.

What won't happen? People make money on taxes? I see about 1000 tax returns a year. Total tax liability means nothing. There is profit to be made, presumably made up by those of us with no exemptions whose tax liablity is an actual positive number. You only need to see the line at H & R Block, those getting taxes done as soon as W2 is in hand, so they can get their 4 or 5 grand. I'll be waiting until April 15th, to pay in what my paycheck deductions didn't cover. We ARE the village that raises the children, we just don't all get credit for it, and probably didn't have any hand in the procreation or in the decision-making behind the procreation, or even an orgasm. ;)

May have been off topic but that line caught my eye.

Isn't it NICE to be NICE to the NICE?

now - all ya all - be NICE!

:)

I'm not only NICE, I'm SPECIAL.

:)

So get out there, have an orgasm or two, pop out a precious little tax deduction, and live high on the dole!

Disclaimer: the tax deduction does not cover the cost of raising a child. It may not even cover the cost of an orgasm. ;)

The $30k job might include health benefits, too. But imagine the equity if everyone's health benefits were covered by Medicaid and CHIP.

It's NICE to have your healthcare completely paid for by someone else.

Ahh yes, I know this. This is what I'm told: it costs money to raise a child. Yep. And as part of the society I am willing to give to the village (in school taxes and the like) to help with that, to help our society. But no, I don't agree that I have any inherent responsibility in any individual's decision to have a child...

Zero tax liability? I can see that. 5 grand profit? Bullshit. If you can't afford a child then don't have them. Way too many do for taxes and pell grants.

So, the whole "it takes money to raise a child so fork it over" argument has never done anything but stick in my craw. I made my decision: I should get tax credit for not overpopulating the planet with little versions of crazy me. :)

oh I get the numbers, just not the preschool at 10K

Isn't it NICE that you can edit posts hours later? :D