Look at this idiotic email I got from a Repub. friend

[fryguy]

Note: My reply at bottom.

Subject: TAXES

TAXES
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
Capital Gains Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Court Fines (indirect taxes)
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money)
Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Local Income Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Septic Permit Tax
Service Charge Taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Road Toll Booth Taxes
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and
local surcharge taxes
Telephone mi nimu m usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charge s tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Toll Bridge Taxes
Toll Tunnel Taxes
Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)
Trailer Registration Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax


COMMENTS:
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What the hell happened

* * * * * *

My comment (quickly researched, so please add additional facts if you want):

Nothing like attempting to dumb down the complexities of the US economy to a list of taxes....

100 years ago we also didn't have:

The interstate road system in all 50 states
A military of 1.8 million people, costing $518.1 billion annually (not including the cost of war in Iraq and Afghanistan)
Federal and state funding of airports, air traffic control, and TSA (not to mention billions in payments to the airlines themselves)
Farm subsidies
Electricity in every home
Business development loans
Federal research grants
The Internet
Social Security

(I could go on...)

Oh yeah, and in 2005, the US was still ranked as the strongest economy in the world with a GDP of $11,750,000,000,000....as for our debt, when Clinton left there was a budgetary surplus for three years running. Within a year of Bush taking office the surplus was replaced with a deficit of about $515 billion, and growing. Thanks to his continued tax breaks targeting the richest 1% of the population and uncontrolled spending by the GOP controlled House and Senate, the debt ceiling has just been increased to $9 trillion.....

But you're right, clearly the economic woes of the nation are due to the septic permit tax.....

:crazy:

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Wonderful Reply

Probably more thoughtful a response than the idiotic email deserved, but superbly done.
The Professor

[stop the bleeding]

2. how much does the war on drugs and Iraq cost us? n/t

[liberal N proud]

3. That is the perfect response

[Cleetus]

4. very well done.

Excellent reply

[zbdent]

5. Choose from his/her reply

1. 9/11! 9/11! 9/11!
2. Yeah, well Clinton had Monica!
3. Why do you hate America?

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Excellent reply

I can't stand that 'it was better in the past' argument. Damnit, we are a society that evolves and changes. Deal with it, people. If you don't like it, move to the country and live in a shack with no running water, phone or electricity. I'd rather stay in the 21st century, thank you.

[PublicWrath]

24. Indeed, one of the best things about the past is that it's gone......n/t

[shenmue]

7. Good one

:7

[reichstag911]

8. I don't have the stats, but...

...100 years ago we had the largest middle class? Seems dubious since a real middle class didn't really develop 'til after WWII.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. Nope

I agree with your sentiment, but the post WWI period ushered in the power and stability of the middle class in the U.S. The lack of regulation to monitor market transactions and banks leveraging into those equity markets were the reason why an otherwise mild economic downturn became catastrophic. But, those dollars flowing through the system (a 120% increase in monetary velocity between 1918 and 1927) were created by middle class people buying homes, buying the new Model T's and the like, buying radios, et al.

The end of WWII expanded upon it, but the basis was already formed in the years i mentioned.

Other than that detail, though, i agree. There was essentially no middle class of any size or distinction 100 years ago.
The Professor

[jrd200x]

9. Many of those taxes DID exist - and his spin is all lies

So many of these are redundant, for example: Property Tax and School Tax. And then all the "indirect" taxes ... c'mon. A traffic fine is a penalty, not a tax. That's like asying jail is a tax.

ON top of your excellent response I would add:

Wars
Wars
Wars
Weapons
Congressional Pork
Scams, lies, and thievery in the government
$90 hammers

and universal eduation - the only add-on that's worth it.

[wtmusic]

10. Those taxes are going to pay off interest on the national debt

The second biggest government expenditure...after defense. Send your homie this little graph of what his hero is doing to his kids' future:

[Gold Metal Flake]

11. ..."100 years ago....largest middle class in the world ..."

Sure about that? Workers were exploited three ways to Sunday. It was unionization and the New Deal and a lot of pro-labor legislation by Progressives that brought us the largest middle class and that happened AFTER the Republican Great Depression.

Go back and see how many federal, state and local taxes were imposed and collected 100 years ago. This repuke conveniently left out those.

"...and Mom stayed home to raise the kids." Ah, nothing like the stench of Republican hate in the morning.

[fryguy]

14. I avoided those issues

figured supporting the notion of a "woman's place is in the kitchen" argument would be for another day.....

and i actually think the workers were exploited three ways ON sunday. he's so far off base with all that i didn't want to hurt his fragile mind with correcting his deluded vision of the utopia that was the early 1900s....

[northzax]

19. yeah, it's probably true

but then, no one had a middle class of much size in 1905, so we lapped the field. In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king, and all that.

[Tyler Durden]

12. You have a REPUBLICAN FRIEND???

Not me, Babe. I don't even have any rePuke FAMILY since we disowned each other.

[warrens]

15. Ask the moron if he wants a 1906 salary too

The average person in those days lived on a farm and had a cash income of about $500 a year. I really hate these idiots.

[DUHandle]

16. You could add that Freedom isn’t Free

I had a similar discussion with a former roommate who fell deeply into the Right and the Freedom <> Free doesn’t work.

Neither does pointing out that those taxes are the expenses of living in an organized and improved community.

It also doesn’t work to say, “Then move to a third world country where there are no taxes and no anything else.

These “I hate to pay taxes people.” are single issue.

[rock]

17. I like the answer:

Hey! Who's spending all this money? (He has a middle initial of W)

[Triana]

18. Your friend blames women entering the workplace for taxes?

Why did he mention that? "Moms stayed home and raised the kids". They couldn't vote or own property either. I'm sure your friend thinks the fact that those things changed is to blame for the nation's ills too. But really, WTF does that have to do with it? It really gets old that working women and women in general are blamed for this country's ills. WE DON'T RUN THE COUNTRY - MEN DO. Hellooo? We're still second-class citizens here. There's NEVER been a female president. Has your friend noticed that?

Women have had to claw and fight tooth and nail for every little right they've gained (rather than having it handed to them on a silver platter at birth by virtue of having a p*nis) and your friend and his ilk are trying to take them away again, rapidly chipping away on a daily basis, whilst apparently yearning for the "good old days" when women stayed in church, the kitchen, and the bedroom, barefoot and pregnant, silent, submissive, brief (when allowed to speak at all), and modest - like a good dog. I wonder if this guy kicks his dog when he has a bad day? It's the same thing.

It's always someone ELSE'S fault, isn't it?

What was HIS PART in all of the problems he sees in this country? THAT is what he ought to be thinking about instead of blaming women (again).

Another spelling for Republican: M Y S O G E N I S T

Ugh.

[IselaB]

20. I think your response is great

But I also think he's full of shit when he says none of those taxes existed 100 years ago. The federal income tax DID exist in 1906 - in fact, the 16th Amendment, which eliminated the argument that a federal income tax was unconstitutional, was finally ratified in 1913. But there had been a federal income tax since the Civil War. I'm sure there were many states which levied income taxes as well, since there was no Constitutional issue there at all.

No marriage license fees? No toll bridges? Give me a break. Just a right-wing fantasy. They really do want to turn the clock all the way back to a pre-New Deal era, don't they? Life will be great once we're living in a Dickensonian paradise again.

[izzie]

21. I guess this GOP think that a modern Industrial society just happens

We could go back to a farm society but no one seems to want to, so you have to pick what you wish. Taxes to pay for the modern society or stay back wards. As I have said, No rich man put in roads. Society has always got together to build. I guess for this GOP it is just stealing the tax that counts.

[Redstone]

22. 100 years ago, we had impassable roads, lousy medical care, hideously

polluted air and water, adulterated and / or spoiled food, a child-mortality rate of about 40%, an expected life span of about 40 years, child labor in the mills and mines, a 12-hour-per-day, 6-day a week workwek; and no, Mom did NOT get to stay home with the kids - she AND they were working in the mills.

So what was it again, that was so good about the "good old days?"

Redstone

[twiterpatted]

23. THE WORD DID NOT EXIST 100 YRS AGO

Of course there was no middle class 100 years ago. The thought of such a thing did not exist. You were poor, farmer or rich.

The response is..... we have the best economy and the largest middle class ever known to mankind right now, right here, our national wealth is more then the rest of the worlds combined, so stop bitching like a little girl you spoiled, ungrateful little brat!!

[Orangepeel]

26. just as much a fiction as "mom staying home"

A "family" defined as a Dad with a job, a Mom who stays home to "raise the kids" and a couple of children is post WWII concept, reinforced by Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet on TV.

In 1906, rich women had nannies and governesses raise the children and poor women (who were almost all women) had to work. Even if a woman didn't have an outside job, she was so busy washing clothes and cooking that child raising had to be done by older children.

[Ishoutandscream2]

25. Let me be a bit simplistic in order for them to understand

Liberals have the facts; Bushbots do not. They argue mainly through hysterical rantings and over-the-top lies.

We win the war on ideas. Everytime.

[KurtNYC]

27. How to make your own RW chain email....

No research required!
Have fun spreading ignorance and hatred!
And it's free!...

Step 1
Pick a subject: (taxes, good news from Iraq, the damned Liberal media, homos, minorities)

Step 2
Say anything you want. Be creative. Make up large numbers. Use a tone that says "everyone knows..." Example: "NASA spent $12 billion on a space pen while the Russians use pencils and your taxes paid for it!"

Step 3
Close with an appeal to the recipient to quickly forward it on without further thought:
"We must get the word out. Send this to 6 friends. Do it now!"

Wait 3 weeks -- check Snopes out for the truth.

[greenbriar]

28. send them this

http://nobravery.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

[heart of darkness]

29. plus he's just plain wrong..we've had all sorts of taxes

That was at least part of the problem with the Articles of Confederation..no way for the federal govt to get money. Guess what..the Constitution solved that issue.

Question: Did any of these taxes exist 100 years ago?

Answer:History of the Income Tax in the US

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005921.html

The nation had few taxes in its early history. From 1791 to 1802, the United States government was supported by internal taxes on distilled spirits, carriages, refined sugar, tobacco and snuff, property sold at auction, corporate bonds, and slaves. The high cost of the War of 1812 brought about the nation's first sales taxes on gold, silverware, jewelry, and watches. In 1817, however, Congress did away with all internal taxes, relying on tariffs on imported goods to provide sufficient funds for running the government.

In 1862, in order to support the Civil War effort, Congress enacted the nation's first income tax law. It was a forerunner of our modern income tax in that it was based on the principles of graduated, or progressive, taxation and of withholding income at the source. During the Civil War, a person earning from $600 to $10,000 per year paid tax at the rate of 3%. Those with incomes of more than $10,000 paid taxes at a higher rate. Additional sales and excise taxes were added, and an “inheritance” tax also made its debut. In 1866, internal revenue collections reached their highest point in the nation's 90-year history—more than $310 million, an amount not reached again until 1911.

The Act of 1862 established the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The Commissioner was given the power to assess, levy, and collect taxes, and the right to enforce the tax laws through seizure of property and income and through prosecution. The powers and authority remain very much the same today.......

QED

[KyuzoGator]

30. Republicans love toys and hate paying for them.

You have to speak in terms a four-year-old can understand, because that's the intellectual capacity we're dealing with.