WHO'S GETTING THE GOODIES...AND WHO'S PAYING THE TAB!

The Tax Foundation has issued a new report entitled "Who Pays America's Tax Burden, and Who Gets the Most Government Spending". You can read the report for yourself right here, though I suspect you already know the answers to the questions.

As you might now, economists and government bureaucrats divide us into quintiles. There's the highest income one-fifth, the lowest income one-fifth, and the three-fifths in the middle. The Tax Foundation study shows that the lowest-earning one-fifth of households in America get about $8.21 in federal, state and local government spending for every dollar they paid in taxes in 2004. If you're in the middle one-fifth, you got about $1.30 in spending for every dollar in taxes. Now, can you guess what happens if you're in the top one-fifth? Right. You get raped. You get about 41 cents in government spending for every dollar you pay in taxes.

Those of you out there who so ardently hate the rich might want to rethink things. Looks to me like you need them to cover your cost of living. Pity you can't care for yourselves. Maybe that's where the hatred comes in. The dependence that those in the lower income brackets have on government handouts breed resentment .. and that resentment is aimed at those who have more. Perhaps instead of resentment these people might want to think in terms of gratitude. Thank goodness there are people out there who do go the extra mile, make the extra effort, work the extra hours to get themselves into those higher brackets. Who is going to create all of this wealth that gets redistributed if they don't? The government?