>>[...] the concern about the tax burden on
>>the middle class - I don't get it.
>
>I think this is tied up in the usual US'er concept of always looking up
>instead of down. You get a $10k raise in your wages, you think: $10k is a
>LOT ... but then you lose ~$3k of it and you don't think about the $7k of
>new money, you think about the $3k of new taxes. And then you think about
>the services that people below you get that you don't.
the people who bitch about taxes have fantasies about the services people below them get. When I made 25k/yr I qualified for reduced price lunches for my kid. That's it. so what fucking services? In order to get reduced rent where I lived, I had to make less than $10k. And all that would have meant was that my rent was going to be $472/month instead of $680/month. That apt complex was built on HUD funds with which we got a fountain at the gate, a brokendown ass gate that never worked, and basketball courts.[1] Woo! Oh and the club house was pretty. Nice landscaping.
We also got cops that terrorized the place. So.
blah blah fucking blahbeddety blah: http://cleandraws.com/2010/06/19/nothings-too-good-for-the-working-class/
[1] which, as my son and I discovered, are decidedly missing from nicer neighborhoods. fucking racist ass bullshit that. move to middle or uppermiddle class neighborhoods, no one can be bothered with a damn basketball court! Fucking a. I have to ride my bike 2 miles to find a basketball court to shoot hoops. But I can walk across the street for a freaking public tennis court. fuck.