CriticalBill wrote: Once people get used to the free check or the free health care, it does get hard to give that up if you don't have to. Not saying everyone who needs it will work the system, but if you think there are not lazy people out there who take advantage, you're very naive.
I think it goes much further. They are actually encouraging you to earn less!
Think about someone earning $25K who goes to school or learns a trade and increases their income to $40K. Their take home pay may actually decrease after losing benefits. So why improve your skills? Just "choose to earn less money". That's hope and change!
It's a little late for me now, but were I still wearing my young man's clothes, I'd question the value of busting my butt to get ahead when there is a much easier road to follow. Having said that, it just is not in my nature to leach. The message I get is the great American Dream that so many immigrants came to chase is now officially dead.
Yes- this is how America will go- because we all know that less economic activity is good for the socialist equality that the Obama administration seeks for us all.
Well I for one am not going to peddle upstream on this one. If it makes more sense to earn less- then I will cut back my reportable income. It's going to be a financial decision and I will not work harder just for the government.
This is a page directly out of Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged. Of course, just like in the book, there's going to be ways out of it- for me it might include earning income that I don't report to the government.
I'll find a way to trade or otherwise make money under the table- hey- over 30 million Illegal Immigrants are doing it now!
Ironic that the very option the defenders state is precisely the reason that tax hikes "on the rich" never realize the revenue envisioned. The rich simply choose to earn less so that they don't have to pay the taxes. They don't need to work after all, they are already millionaires and billionaires - so they simply choose to earn less rather than make that next dollar that puts them into the new punitive bracket for being successful. That is certainly how we are going to raise all the revenue we'll need to pay off the obscene debt the general government has wrung up - make less money, pay less taxes. I'm sure that will help us emerge from our stagnant economy and recover the economic vitality of the nation.
