Originally Posted By: RamFan
I'll just say this as a Junior in college working towards a Political Science degree before the thread gets locked.
When I graduate I will have roughly $50k in college loans to pay back, every year come tax season I OWE money to the state of IL and last year I actually owed a couple dollars to the Fed. Reason being is my mom who is retired Navy works in GTMO for Moral, Welfare, and Recreation which is the moral boosting body under the Dept. of the Navy. They are in charge of organizing USO/Armed Service Entertainment visits/shows, they run the movie theaters, restaurants, hobby shops, etc. If I fly back for the summer I generally work there and because of this IL qualifies it as out of state work which makes me owe money come tax season.
Even with all my loans that have been taken out (all of which are government loans) just for the mere fact that I'm ELIGIBLE to be a dependent disqualifies me from filing on my own which might let me have a little extra cash once a year. Instead I'm filed as a dependent and my mom gets a nice extra bit of cash for educational expenses even though the loans are under my name and I will be the one paying them back. Last year I made roughly $5,000 yet still owed $300 or 400 come April.
I have no problem paying taxes and I do think that the tax rate needs to go up for those making $1 mil. plus, but I also believe that the amount of exemptions need to be cut for the rest. With that being said I find it ridiculous that a college student still owes money when all is said and done. I don't collect food stamps even though I qualify, I don't use the local utility assistance program even though I qualify, I don't use government assistance other than my government loans. I don't use these things because I know that should I be absolutely broke I can always pick up the phone and ask mom for a couple bucks and I'd rather have someone who doesn't have that option use the welfare system for what it is intended.
I know this is rambling and very specific to my situation but it irritates me when people say that the poor, which I am have no drive and depend on government. The welfare queen that so many people depict is only a small percentage of the population of the people that use government aid in the way it was intended. Is it a perfect system? Absolutely not. Do some people abuse the system? Yes! But, let us look at the big picture and what the overall impact our welfare system has and not focus on the small amount of people that abuse it.
Our country has a taxation and spending problem. However, the taxation is a bigger part of the problem than the spending.
Mostly well said, except that you should claim those things that are available to you because they are precisely in place to offset the fact that you pay taxes.
However, it's also a symptom of a taxation / benefits system ruined by politician's meddling and it's a huge inefficiency for you and for the taxpayer administratively to have such a system. Hence we have one of the most cumbersome tax codes in the world and a whole industry that has sprung up around it to service it.
At the end of the day, I believe we get the politicians we deserve. The approval rating of congress is a reflection of the morals and participation in democracy of the people, who are too lazy to do what is in their interest and who stand by while corporations run the political system.
Healthcare in this country is the biggest joke. 25% of the cost is admin. The total cost is double other countries and the health outcomes are WORSE. Again, politicians incompetence and ideology supported by a fickle public.
I pay more in medicare taxes than I pay for my own families healthcare. I subsidise people's stupidity in terms of their eating habits, their exercise habits, then their laziness in not asking questions while the doctors fleece them, then their willingness to take medication for everything instead of finding the root cause in diet and other behaviors.
And my sense is that most of these stupid people are precisely those in the tea party. I'm sure I could correlate states with the highest obesity with states with the largest and most rabid tea parties and then those who feel entitled to $2 gas and blame Obama (instead of the free market, the very thing they say they believe in) for gas prices. At least all that protesting about other people is causing them to get some exercise.
