There is a large group of people that honestly believe—or act as if they honestly believe—that the income from a person selling their labor belongs to the government first and secondarily to the person. Ownership of something—anything and everything—allows the owner to determine how it is used.
If you own your home, you get to determine what color to paint the walls. You decide if your car is going to be driven to Batangas or Baguio over the Holy Week. When you go to the department store, you decide if you are going to spend your money on a shirt or pants.
Yet, when you receive payment from the fruits of your labor, it is the government that determines how much of the income you receive, which by definition implies that the government owns the income, and gives to you whatever amount it sees fit. People do not seem to have a problem with that fact. That is because they believe—incorrectly—that they have some sort of say in how much of our income the government lets us keep.
Further, people think that they are in control of the spending that the government does with our money because the government smartly allows people to have some input about the government budget and can protest what the people see as improper spending.
But in truth, it is all a magic show of smoke and mirrors. The people do not have authority over what the government gives back after taxes and only limited control of spending, and then only in the most outrageous incidents of waste and corruption.
Deep down inside and as an individual in the dark of the night, you know that the system is taking advantage of you. It is like that time you bought something at the supermarket and when you got home, it was not in the bag. Sure, it was only a three-pack Safeguard soap costing P100, but it was your purchase and you did not get your money’s worth. If going back to the store to complain and get compensation is worth the trouble, how much are you going to fight over the issue when you are told that nothing can be done?
We all know that complaining about taxation or even trying to cheat is probably a losing battle in the long term. The silly argument—in whatever form—that “I would pay the correct tax if the government did not waste the money” is not going to keep you out of jail if you are caught evading taxes. So we shift our anger to someone else.
In the world of taxation, as in the natural world, there is always someone higher on the food chain. The little fish gets eaten by the big fish that gets eaten by the bigger fish, and so on.
It is the character Bruce—the great white shark in Finding Nemo—that needs to be the vegetarian to keep the little clownfish from being dinner. There is always someone higher in the food chain to blame. If you have to pay 30 percent of your income in taxes, then the rich and obviously evil oligarchs should have to pay 80 percent. It is only fair.
The reality is that one man’s “middle-class wage earner” is another man’s “rich evil oligarch.” It all depends where you are in the food chain. But who is truly at the top of the food chain that should be the “vegetarian”? Maybe it is the government.
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