The Ridiculousness of Taxation

One thing I hear more often than I should is that low paying or lower paying jobs are “not so bad” and even “profitable” because of the high rate of taxation on higher income jobs. The logic is the higher paying job one has, the more taxes are taken out of that paycheck. So it ends up being “better” to have a low paying job. This is a ludicrous outlook. It is almost insultingly condescending. First of all no matter the rate of taxation of a higher income job, one is still making more money with that job than a person with a lower paying, minimum wage job. According to NerdWallet.com, the incomes from lowest to highest are as such: $0-$9275, $9276-$37650, $37651-$91150, $91150-$190150, $190150-$413350, $413350-415050, $415050 or more. The tax rate starts at the lowest income at 10% tax rate, then goes up to $927.50 plus 25% of the amount over $9275, then goes up to $5183.75 plus 28% of the amount over $91150, then goes up again to $46,278.75 plus 33% of the amount over $190,150 then goes up again to $119,934.75 plus 35% of the amount over $413,50, and for the final and highest income the tax rate on that is $120,529.75 plus 39.6% of the amount over $415,050. And all of that is only for Single Filers, nothing to do with if one is Married Filing Jointly or if you are a Qualifying Window(er). Minimum wage jobs such as working in a fast food restaurant or working at a gas station, for example, should be paid more. No one could survive on that income alone, especially after taxes are taken out. Higher paying jobs get more benefits than the lower paying ones, but everyone should get the same amount of benefits because everyone has the same amount of rights no matter your status and level of education that determines the job you get. Familiesandwork.org supplies a table that displays the following information.

There is clearly a dramatic hourly wage difference between low income worker, middle income worker and high income worker. Of course every job comes with a different set of responsibilities, and each should be rewarded according to those responsibilities, it doesn’t mean that the low income jobs should be paid so extremely little. The cost of living in the United States of an average person is $20,194, according to opensourceecology.org. That is based strictly on the lowest cost of every aspect of living, such as rent or mortgage, electricity, food etc. It isn’t always possible to find the cheapest of each no matter where one lives. This piece of data is only to prove that it is nearly impossible to survive on a low income salary, no matter how little taxes are taken out.