Two percent (2%) doesn’t sound like a lot. It’s two cents out of a dollar. Heck, to some folks, it’s a rounding error and they don’t even bother picking up the pennies on the floor.
But I’ll bet a lot of people who are getting their first paycheck of the new year today are finding out just how much two percent is, because that’s how much the payroll tax went up on January 1 thanks to the Fiscal Whatever deal. I found out this morning when I checked my bank account and saw the difference between the last check of last year and the one today.
I get it why it happened. We need the revenue, and I agree with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: taxes are the price we pay for civilization. But the likelihood that my landlord and my creditors are going to knock two percent off my debts just because the kids in the Klown Kar in Congress hate the black guy is very slim.
Feh.
I agree. We all need to pay taxes, but the big corporations and rich folks seem to get out of it.
There’s a flipside to this as well. Snobbery in retail takes a huge blow. How many 1%ers will still spend money for Mont Blanc, Tumi, Prada, Burberry, Blancpain or other luxury-brands when all that sales tax will be going to Big Gubmint and Bic, Old Navy and Casio make stuff that works just as well? It’ll be the end of Bloomingdale’s, Barney’s, Rolex, Italian fashions and whole hordes of skilled tradespeople. And Walmart and other “discount retail” outlets will be poised to make a killing.