2007 was the first year since 2001 that Flag and Banner has shown a decent profit and I had every intention of reinvesting that profit into my business, my employees and ultimately, the American Economy. “But, noooo, the tax man cometh.” So instead of reinvesting in my community, I sent the extra money to Washington, where it seems like they just toss it in the air or maybe toss it towards each other. Our politicians just don’t get it… Small business is to our economy what the middle class is to our society. We pay the highest taxes, bear the biggest burdens, and while small business does not literally “die” for our country as the middle and working classes often do, it seems Washington has no qualms about trying to tax us to death.
When the government needs money, we are the first group of people they go to for higher taxes (can you believe Exxon just asked for a tax break, they’ll probably get it). And then when we (the middle class or small business) complain, we are the ones accused of being unpatriotic. I’m not the most well read person in the world, but one quote does come to mind, from Alexis De’Toqueville’s “Democracy in America…” “America is great because she is good. When she ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” It’s awfully hard to be good for too long when things aren’t fair. And the tax burden in this country has been unfair for far too long. Not surprisingly, when discussing this blog with one of my friends, he mentioned another lesser know quote from Alexis De Tocqueville, “A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.” Go figure.
I started wondering just how well we compare with the taxes of other countries and so I did a Google search. Low and behold, the only super powers with taxes higher than ours are China and Germany, one a communist and the other a socialist.
