Taxes and Death

Growing up this statement "Pay Taxes and Die", were the only sure things in life. We as silly teenagers would laugh out loud as we would say this statement. In my old age (almost 40) I see a lot of folly in that statement. Though the statement is true, I do see other more sure things in life, such as Jesus Christ and his Death on the Cross giving us life for those that Repent and Believe. However, we all have been allowed to be stupid once in awhile,,,,right. LOL.

Another thing I do see as a sure thing is the manipulation by liberals about our tax system. I keep hearing how the rich don't pay enough in taxes and that the poor pay an unrealistic percentage of income into the tax coffers. More Folly I say.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs (Evangelical Outpost) and came across this interesting article about how much Exxon made and how much Exxon paid into taxes for the last couple of years. Now it is easy to be angry at Exxon when we pay almost $3.00 per gallon of gas, but please remember Exxon isn't the only responsible party that has gotten this cost up to $3.00 per gallon of gas. We have speculators trying to make money off of oil. This is a large reason we see almost $100.00's for a barrel of oil (settling in around $93.00 this morning). We also see OPEC refusing to increase production, because in their eyes, supply meets demand. We also have growing economies all over the world demanding this oil. We also have a country with no clear energy policy; this reason drives my anger the most, however I'm digressing.

Anyway this is all fine and dandy, but the real reason for this post is to show you that rich companies and rich people keep this government and country running. Exxon made $40.6 billion in profits last year after paying its bills and Taxes. They paid into the United States Government $30 billion in Taxes. That's right $30 billion. $30 billion is more money that the bottom half of all individual tax filers paid for the entire year. A better way to say it is that Exxon paid more in taxes than the 65,000,000 (million) bottom half of all tax payers. Folks, this is one company.

Read this article to get a better perspective. I think about the eight years I spent in the Marine Corps and the 6 years I spent as a police officer; I only paid in taxes around $17,000-20,000 total for these 14 years. Think about that. I was a Police Officer making around 25,000 a year, and paying roughly $1200-1600 (6-7%) a year in taxes, and one company is paying $30 billion or 41% of their profits in taxes. I think we citizens need to put things in prospective occasionally, and we also need to realize that life is good, and maybe realize that sometimes life not being fair is good also. That is, unless you like paying 41% of your income into taxes.

(HT: Evangelical Outpost and Instapundit)