I’m not a regular Daily Show viewer. On the rare occasion I do watch, it’s usually
a video clip on the Daily Show website.
My brother posted this video today, and I must admit, I laughed several
times. (Contains some profanity, by the
way.) And to a certain extent there are
things Jon Stewart brings up that I agree with.
I think our tax code is a mess, and we spend way too much money managing and administering it. This is why I’ve been a huge fan of the flat tax since I learned about it in high school. The flat tax means every person pays a small percentage of their income. No loopholes, no shelters, no incentives.
That said, on Tuesday, David and I became members of what
Jon Stewart calls “the investor class”.
We took David's retirement from 3 years teaching and rolled it over to an
IRA that we have more control over and can contribute to by transferring money
each month from our checking account into the IRA account. When we file our 2012 taxes next year,
whatever money we’ve paid into the IRA comes off of David’s income, which
reduces the tax we pay and gives us a larger refund.
Anyone who knows us knows we aren’t wealthy. We don’t have money for expensive
vacations. Our cars are over 10 years
old, and the price of gas affects our budget like it does for many people. And yet, I feel better about belonging to “the
investor class” than I do about the fact that my children qualify for the
free lunch program at school. It’s a
great program, and I am grateful for it for the times my girls want to eat
lunch at school. It would cost me $5 each time they both wanted the school food. $5 doesn't seem like a lot, but it goes a lot farther at the grocery store than it does in the school cafeteria. Again, I'm grateful, but I don’t expect it.
Mitt Romney’s 49% comments on the “secret” video are
insensitive and grossly oversimplified.
But President Obama has also said some pretty stupid things when he
thought no one was listening. (More
flexibility for Russia after the election, anyone?) I don’t think we need all the shock and
outrage. What we do need, however, is a
way to help people to help themselves.
Many of the people receiving help from the government
realize and hope that it is a temporary thing.
They want a hand UP, not a hand OUT.
And that is what those programs are for.
Temporary help for a temporary setback.
But there are many others who see food stamps, welfare checks, and
low-cost housing as something that is owed to them (thus the term “entitlement”)
because they’ve been using it for so long that the motivation and drive to
improve their situation has been taken away.
I’ve shopped at a local grocery store that is located in a
neighborhood with a lot of low-cost housing.
More often than not, the 2 or 3 people in line ahead of me are paying
for their groceries with food stamps.
What always makes me sad is the look of emptiness and hopelessness in
their eyes. It’s not hunger and
poverty. It’s the realization that they
are powerless, disposable members of society.
This is America! The
land of opportunity! This is the country
my great-grandfather came to in order to make a better life for his wife and
children. He worked for 10 YEARS to save
up enough money to bring my great-grandmother and my grandfather to this
country. He knew what America had to
offer was so much better than what was available to him in Italy. He knew that hard work brings success, and
that an honest day’s work (even if the pay wasn’t great) brings a sense of
satisfaction and freedom that can’t be found when it’s simply handed out with
no effort required to receive it.
And maybe that’s the difference.
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