The despised ruler's tax collectors.

[Neighbor]

Seems the depised Kings men  tax collectors are still around today;  and in the USA ever more so by going after the  lower level earners of income! Why? Do the lower level earners have  to pay any taxes at all?

 Seems according to the Wall Street Journal report the 87,000 ruler's tax collectors of the IRS, some  complete with guns, are out to get those earning under $200,000 a year for they do not tend to have the resources to fight  off the increase assessment of taxes an IRS auditor might demand is due to the US Treasury.

While I feel it right for everyone to have to pay  a share of taxes, without exception, I do find it interesting that the push to gain additional staff for IRS is not resulting in audit of major earners as was billed to be the purpose, but instead is resulting in more lower hanging  fruit being squashed.

One might look up the Wall Street Journal Article on "The $200,000 man" for details.

Just as the poor will always be with us, I guess so will the king's tax collectors of rather despicable reputations.

Sure makes a flat tax or a consumption only tax instead of income tax seem appealing.

None the less pay to Caesar what is due Caesar, and to God give deep thanks for what is of God.

[NConly]

This is part of the build back better program that biden started. He could have spent time looking into the wasted military money or the three letter agencies wasted money and even the worthless medicare fraud program that protects doctors from prosecution.

[Logostician]

I have always been in favor of a national sales tax to replace the income tax.  The IRS, like other government departments, is too easily weaponized for political purposes.  Apart from political corruption, it makes no sense to punish people, or companies, for being productive, stimulating the economy, and providing jobs to others.  But it is entirely reasonable to tax people for the goods and services they withdraw from society.  Currently the states of Nevada, Florida, Texas, Wyoming, and Oregon, all follow this system successfully.  And it would work at the federal level.

Income tax also punishes savings, which hinders investment, and leads to a paycheck to paycheck subsistence society.  I should not be punished for pragmatic saving for the future.  All saving should be tax free.  Only consumption should be taxed.  Money saved also provides businesses with the capital necessary to grow the economy through increased equity from investment, as well as availability of funds from lenders.

[Marathoner]

4 hours ago, Neighbor said:

Seems according to the Wall Street Journal report the 87,000 ruler's tax collectors of the IRS, some  complete with guns, are out to get those earning under $200,000 a year for they do not tend to have the resources to fight  off the increase assessment of taxes an IRS auditor might demand is due to the US Treasury.

That is correct. The resources required to investigate wealthy tax evaders doesn't justify the expenditure in resources, according to the Treasury Department's reasoning. The wealthy tax evader can mire the IRS in court for many years; they can afford expensive (as well as experienced) legal representation. Lower-income individuals, on the other hand, are easy. Less money involved... the prospect of legal representation is negligible... and the resources expended justify this approach, thus why audits are aimed at lower-income taxpayers. Unless the Department of Justice has someone in their sights, and the tax angle of prosecution is a sure-fire bet --- remember, that was the strategy the federal government used to prosecute the Italian American mafia before RICO --- the Treasury Department avoids the wealthy. 

It is right? No. However, it is what it is. 

[D. Adrien]

Perhaps it has more to do with what John Strickland conveys in his piece concerning Marxist dogma. (JS is a Eastern Orthodox priest that has a doctorate in Russian history.)

Keep in mind that the handlers of the current President are not patriots of the U.S.

An excerpt: ( I bolded the pertinent paragraph and provided the previous paragraphs for some background.)

Marx is known to many historians for advancing socialism from an “idealistic” ideology to a “scientific” one. With him, socialism moved from mere hopes about progress for the working class to one of scientific laws about it. This, certainly, is what the father of Communism claimed himself. Marx pored over empirical data about the economy in London’s British Museum Reading Room. Using his research, he erected a grand theory of economics and history that declared, in a language similar to Darwin’s, that natural laws not only govern human behavior but determine its outcome. Science, he claimed, proves that the future belongs to the industrial working class.

At the core of this theory was the Darwinian principle of natural selection. Marx wanted to dedicate his magnum opus, Das Kapital, to the great contemporary biologist. He agreed completely that individual members of a given species are locked in a relentless “struggle for existence” with one another, and that destruction and death pave the way of evolutionary progress. For Marx, though, social evolution depends on individuals of a given class organizing together to struggle against and annihilate their enemy class. As a result of industrialization, the two great class enemies were currently the proletariat and the capitalistic bourgeoise. Progress would come, Marx promised, when the former class overthrew and replaced the latter class in what he called the “proletarian revolution.”

To reach this turning point in history, however, very bad things had to continue to befall the working class. Marx introduced a principle of progress he called “immiseration.” According to it, the working class, in order to become sufficiently class-conscious and capable of the violence needed for the proletarian revolution, must, in the simplest terms, become ever more miserable. Conversely, if it experiences improvements through political reforms or economic prosperity, it will fail to play its “scientifically” assigned role in history.

Edit: the article can be read here: 

https://johnstrickland.org/2023/11/30/the-paradox-of-marxist-anthropology-or-more-bad-news-for-mrs-gumdrop/

Edited April 13 by D. Adrien
provide a link to JS"s article

[Neighbor]

Yep lots of ways to fund governments. And lots of governments to fund eh?

Amazing that the mice get any of the cheese at all, but somehow it happens. God is merciful, praise God and pay Caesar what is his, eh?

[D. Adrien]

You know it'll be bad when the federal gov. will demand payment in a different currency than the American dollar. :)

[Neighbor]

38 minutes ago, D. Adrien said:

You know it'll be bad when the federal gov. will demand payment in a different currency than the American dollar. :)

I'd say LOL, but I can't for the thought it could become reality  very easily and oh so quickly.

In the meantime,.... Hey wait a minute, how many States of the USA are now accepting Cyber currencies for payment of various taxes and services?