The federal income tax is the single biggest source of revenue for the federal government. The only other federal taxes that are of consequence are payroll taxes, which are intended as (and can be shown, minus some progressive and regressive specific counterxamples) to be a rough proxy for the benefits you will be provided down the road. Since we are talking about (or I am) the federal vote, I am happy to focus on the one major federal tax that is not a quid pro quo (even gas or excise taxes are more of a quid pro quo, 'cause you’re getting the enjoyment of burning however much gas or booze or whatever it is that you bought).
The operative word there is ‘intended’. In reality, the trust fund was raided to subsidize the general fund so that income taxes could be cut foe those at the top. And now, those who benefited from this larceny are whining about paying it back, and want to change the rules. They want to cut the benefits and delay claims in a cynical ploy to make those least able to afford it pay at both ends of their life.
If a person is to be ruled by a government, that person should have a vote in who runs the government, regardless of tax status.
Right. I mean, how do you go from “No taxation without representation!” to “No representation for the untaxed!”?!
So a person pays money to the government, in the form of payroll tax, and the government holds that money for some years, then pays it back? That sure sounds like “skin in the game” to me. In fact, doesn’t that give them a stronger interest than the income tax does? The revenue from the income tax is collected and spent right away. A person pays income tax and enjoys the benefits of it right away. There is no continuing interest from that; politicians could abolish it or any of the programs it funds. But the money collected by payroll taxes is, as your describe, owed back to the people who paid it. It’s hard to imagine more “skin in the game” than that.
Which is why I have a seat on my bank’s board of directors.
wait a minute. I don’t.
Which is why you have no recourse if they take the money out of your account and spend it on hookers and blow.
Wait a minute, you do.
No no no. It’s that some persons are worth more than other persons. Clearly I am in the former category and you are in the latter. Well, because I’m me.
Draft age. Old enough to kill and die in the state’s wars is old enough to vote for state officers.