Taxes and Things at 12:38 PM

Ah, taxes.  The mere mention of the word just puts you in that special mood, doesn’t it?  Though preparing taxes in my generation is not such an arduous task as it was for my parents’ (thank you, TurboTax), still, preparing my taxes always makes me angry.  You might be wondering why, considering I’ve never actually owed anything (in federal taxes, anyway).  It’s because I get to see how much the government has taken out of my checks for the entire year, and I get to thinking what they must be doing with it.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I don’t make tons of money, and my tax contribution is downright paltry compared to many.  But I start thinking about the billions and billions of dollars the governments (state, federal, etc) have at their disposal, and what exactly we see from it.  I don’t normally talk about politics (because I don’t know anything about politics outside of what Jon Stewart, Dave Letterman and Tina Fey tell me), but I’ll make an exception here, because I think this may be a common perspective among those of us who don’t know much about politics.

You know what I see when I think about the money the federal government has?  Rich, self-congratulatory politicians who don’t have any idea what life outside of Washington is.  Sure, they’ve got all their programs about which I know nothing, and a lot of which do a lot of good (I assume), but every time I turn around, it seems, the House or the Senate is approving some pay raise for themselves.  I see the capital of the country that seems like its own little world.  A place where bureaucrats and red tape are king and little of consequence ever seems to be accomplished.  That’s all I’m going to say about federal, because to go any further is to make myself look dumber than I already do.

As far as local government, I owe $200 in county taxes this year.  What does the county do that the city and state don’t?  No, seriously—I’m asking.  Is it snow removal?  Because the snow removal here is garbage.  It’s not even worth a dollar, let alone 200.  Is it for the upkeep of the county roads that no one uses and that are never maintained?  I come from a state with three counties, and this whole “county tax” thing is new to me.  It must not be standard practice among all the states, because it’s not even an option to have county tax taken out of my paycheck.  I would just have to withhold a certain amount more every pay period, which I don’t want to do.  I’m a bit annoyed by this whole thing.  Can you tell?

I thought about making some suggestions here for improvements and programs that would be worth our tax money, or just save tax money in general.  Things like revamping the prison system.  But I’m already tired of talking about political things, so maybe I’ll save that for a future “The List” subject.

Anyway, moving on to lighter subjects.  I’ve posted the definitive top ten list over on Eight Cents, with the top ten shows on television right now.  So check it out and throw in your own two cents.  I’m always interested in what people like to watch.  Maybe my partners in crime on that site (who haven’t posted in ages) will join me and make their own lists (I’m looking at all of you expectantly).  

I’ll cut myself off here for now.  I had a few more things that I wanted to talk about, but I can’t remember what they are anymore.  I need to start writing these things down.  I think when I first started blogging, I had all this pent up knowledge that I just needed to drop on the general populous, and so I got it all out quickly.  Now things don’t stick in my head for quite as long as they used to.  I have a specific window in which I need to either write down an idea or post it, because it’ll be gone later.  Or maybe I’m just getting old.  I’m turning 27 this month, after all.  

Song of the day:  “A Change is Gonna Come”, by Sam Cooke.  Old but good.