In case you wondered, Americans actually pay more taxes than any other country on earth.

Some of the Taxes Americans Pay Each Year

• Accounts Receivable Tax ( gee, what's this, I only have payables)
• Building Permit Tax ( you have a building?)
• Capital Gains Tax ( who's still in the market anyway?)
• CDL license Tax ( Commercial drivers license)
• Cigarette Tax ( stop smoking or roll your own)
• Corporate Income Tax ( Only if you have one and then only if you show a profit and, if you show a profit you
• 're an idiot and you should fire you're accountant))
• Court Fines (indirect taxes) ( only if they catch you)
• Dog License Tax ( Just don't pay it..)
• Federal Income Tax  ( see above)
• Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
• Fishing License Tax ( fresh and salt water)
• Food License Tax ( what the hell is this?)
• Fuel permit tax
• Gasoline Tax (68 ++ cents per gallon) ( bikes don't have to pay this one)
• Hunting License Tax ( only if you want to blow small animals away, unless they look kinda like Barney Frankenstien or Nobama........)
• Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money) Of course you're dead by then so who cares!
• Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
• IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) ( forgetabout it)
• Liquor Tax  (This is only if you drink and by the time you finish this list you probably will)
• Local Income Tax ( those of you living in a box are exempt, for now)
• Luxury Taxes (when nobama  and the dirty dems are through with us you don't have to worry about this one , you won't have any)
• Marriage License Tax ( stay single, just cohabitate)
• Medicare Tax ( what is this one?)
• Property Tax ( again, for those of you living in boxes, no worries about this one)
• Real Estate Tax ( see above)
• Septic Permit Tax  (Don't want to pay this, no worries, Just box it up and mail to Washington)
• Service Charge Taxes
• Social Security Tax (Only if you live long enough to collect, but as the pols keep extending the age "forget about it!"
• Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)
• Sales Taxes ( That's what the flea market is for , dummy!)
• Recreational Vehicle Tax ( Having fun yet bunky?)
• Road Toll Booth Taxes ( Didn't the tax payers pay for the road already)
• School Tax ( Even if you hate kids and don't have any, you will pay this one)
• State Income Tax
• State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) ( no worries, here, most of you are collecting, not paying)
• Telephone federal excise tax ( Who need a phone?)
• Telephone federal universal service fee tax
• Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
• Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
• Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
• Telephone state and local tax
• Telephone usage charge tax
• Toll Bridge Taxes (Do they charge hikers or bikes?)
• Toll Tunnel Taxes   (Just stay out of them) many aren't safe......
• Traffic Fines (indirect taxation) ( Drive slower)
• Trailer registration tax ( You have a car ? )
• Utility Taxes ( Doesn't apply to the homeless)
• Vehicle License Registration Tax
• Vehicle Sales Tax ( use Craig's list and say you bought it for a buck)
• Watercraft registration Tax ( Doesn't apply to raft unless motorized)
• Well Permit Tax ( Drink rain water)
• Workers Compensation Tax ( yeah sure, you'll be compensated... bend over! )
• Large wild animal pet license tax.( only for people who keep giant snakes, tigers and bears, remember, let the kind inspector into the cage and forgetabout it!)

COMMENTS: Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class and Mom stayed home to raise the kids. So, what the hell happened? Democrats and greedy power mad politicians for one thing!

TAXED INTO THE STREET

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT THE ABILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT TO TAX THE CITIZEN. A GREAT IDEA ONE UPON A TIME WHEN WE WERE ALL MORE OR LESS EQUAL. NOW, WITH GERRYMANDERED  DISTRICTS AND NO REPRESENTATION, THOSE WHO CAN PAY PAY AND THOSE WHO CAN'T BENEFIT.

“You pay or we will lien your home and eventually force it to auction to pay us and we don’t give a damm where you go. You will pay!”

 Such is the threat from your friendly property tax office wherever you may live. In South Florida property taxes have been increasing steadily with no sign of leveling off. I have seen older citizens in Fort Lauderdale selling off their furniture to pay the tax bill and actually being forced to sell their homes and move in with their children. Such horror stories occur in every neighborhood.

 The burgeoning state and local governments are overstaffed with thousands of incompetents who have been hired into these malignant bureaucracies as a huge public works program on the backs of the homeowners.

 Let’s look at the figures; In Broward county the commissioners plow through a $2.6 billion budget like starving hogs in an bottomless trough. The school budget is on the order of $985 million which, with 277,000 or so inmates, ( sorry students)  works out to $3,635 per student. The 453,000 single family homes in Broward pay $934,000,000 in property taxes and account for less than 20% of the 270,000 students.

 In America, the idea of homeowners paying for the education of their children was workable when all the students came from the surrounding homes. Everyone contributed and everyone shared in the expense. That was a great idea 100 years ago- it isn’t anymore.

 Want to really hear a holly terror of an idea? Make the parents of children in the public schools pay tuition!

 If every parent had to pay $3600 a year to send their kids to school, guess what? 1) There would be a lot fewer children. 2) The kids would do a lot more homework. 3) The parents would be very much involved in their child’s education. 4) Grades would improve and 5) They might even learn something. I don’t think anyone can doubt that all this would be true.

 Property owners would be big winners as well. Their tax burden would be substantially reduced. School populations would drop due to parents realizing that children actually cost money to educate. ( imagine that? )  The need for large numbers of police would be reduced along with juvenile crime. Most of the kids would be doing their homework and not on the streets. With the reduced numbers of kids, the need for so many schools and teachers would be reduced as well.

 I know what you’re going to say. Many of the 270,000 children in Broward come from disadvantaged homes where the parents can’t pay the cost to educate their kids. OK, a valid argument but, there is an answer- student loans, funded by county education bonds. The parents would sign the loan docs and the kids would pay them after graduation or when they entered the work force much as the federal government now provides loans for college or university education.  For kids to understand that education costs, they might even begin to value it. Text books would be purchased so they would take better care of them and most importantly, children would learn a sense of responsibility and understand that we all have obligations. 

As I pointed out, the benefits from such a plan are many and obvious. School budgets would shrink, homeowners would see substantial reductions in their property taxes, community police budgets would be reduced, Generations of children would grow up to be far better educated and certainly be more responsible citizens. The horrendous 50% drop out rates would shrink. 

This is not a new idea- there are articles all over the internet discussing this and many other ideas. Private and charter schools are a beginning. Public school administrators certainly understand the challenge they are facing.  Student test performance in public schools is abysmal compared to private facilities. We send a kid through 12 years of education, spending on that single kid $43,200.00 and he still can’t read. Many of the teachers in the public school system likely can’t read either, so, no surprise. 

Nationally, something like 50% of the Afro-American and Latino students fail to graduate from High school and wind up on the streets working minimum wage jobs, unemployed or engaging in crime. If they got through even 8 years in our schools they cost us $28,800 each. Over the last 10 years, figuring that these students represented even 20% of the student population in Broward County, this would mean something like 540,000 kids went through the public school system completely wasting a staggering $1,555,200.000- that’s right, $1.5 billion of the taxpayers money.  If all 270,000 of the Broward county school kids actually did manage to graduate, the cost to keep them these daytime prisons for 12 years would be a staggering $11.6 billion.  

These figures suggest clearly that something has to be done and now! Perhaps it will take a tax payer revolt to drive the point home to the County and school officials.

 Robert Firth