I am an activist for low income people. A lot of people feel they, "shouldn't have to support other people's kids". Caregiving goes SO much further than kids, but kids are important because they are our country's future and will take care of us when we can no longer do it. So I respond with the following and it usually gets silence, which imo is because it makes non-taxers think since they have little with which to respond:
If our government were to take over the trillions being saved for the cost of care giving so everyone could go out and work for a wage, who is going to pay for that? Since this is in essence a subsidy for corporations, should they pay for this so everyone can work for a wage ~ or would it simply mean more taxes in order to make sure rich men get richer?
Care giving IS a job worthy of support. Women lose on the average of $270,000 over their lifetime in paid labor because of care giving ~ and it is not only with their children. It is with their parents and then their spouses as well when loved ones need 27/7 care. More often than not, it is not affordable to pay for this care with a job, which for women's wage is at $0.70 for every man's dollar. These women have to make the agonizing choice of working for a wage OR caring for their loved ones, so care giving is EXPENSIVE and would cost tax payers or SOMEONE trillions more if they were not doing it.
1. When you get old and unable to care for yourself and your community, who is going to care for you? Most likely "other people's kids" that's who.
2. Sooooo... raising children and taking care of community is "doing nothing" huh? Was it "doing nothing" when your mother raised you? No wonder your spelling and grammar is so horrid! Obviously she decided saying, "do you want fries with that?" and making some rich man richer while her wages did not cover so much as the rent, was FAR more important than
you as a child, right? Without that care you would not have survived even a week. Now you are all grown up and it is your moral obligation to not only take care of yourself (and maybe your kids if you have them), but for HER when she can no longer do it, right?
3."Other people's kids" are going to pay your Social Security and Medicare, you are paying for your parent's who cared for you as a child ~ and they gave so your grandparents could have a safety net. While Baby Boomers are paying BOTH their parent's and their own Social Security, they are the only generation who will do that. All other generations pay for the past generation who cared for them. Therefore all those "other people's kids" are going to support you.
4. And speaking of your parents, did they not work hard and now deserve your support as they grow old? Who is going to take care of them and change their diapers if they cannot do it, or are you going to depend on "someone else's kids" to do it? Who is going to pay for that if you don't think your taxes should except you, who are morally obligated to do so? If you think "pulling the plug on Grandma" is a moral ethic, then you are not living up to your Tea Party values who were in a tizzy about that, if you are able to remember more than a few months ago ...
5. So, your parents spent a huge part of their incomes on you, so it will be up to YOU to take care of them. If you think you can afford $8000.00 a month at a CHEAP adult care center where the low paid staff are underpaid and overwhelemed and will most likely neglect your parents, hey, go for it ~ however you may want to ask what will be left over for you from your enormous wages when you are in that shape? And how are you going to work making that rich man richer leaving your parents to their own devices, since caring for your elders is also "doing nothing" and not worthy of any support?
6. You and your wife, if she is working for a wage are sitting pretty ~ for now. But if you or she become injured on-the-job or sick and can no longer work for that wage, that will be up to you also since you don't think paying taxes are worth it. After all the 5-7% in taxes you pay now (if you are middle class and this is your average amount) is going to go SO far in 40 years of savings when the cost soars to over $500,000 for care and medicine, right? Why surely if you were not paying that 5% that will give you enough to buy a mansion, Mercedes and all the trappings, so (sob) you may have to forgo that in order to pay for your treatments and income, right?
7. What I write about here is only in care giving, I have not even began to talk about the Commons, which the poor pay for at a far greater proportion of their incomes than you and use them far less.
8. Depending on the state, the poor pay 12-20% of their incomes in taxes and it is a huge sacrifice for them much more than it is for you. In essence YOU are living off their baby's backs, because they pay it so you don't have to. A welfare mother pays more taxes than you so you don't have to.
9. The poor cannot afford to go to a game, but they pay for and subsidize the facilities and team so you can. They take the bus because they cannot afford the cost of a car to get to work, so what they pay in taxes for roads and other facilities is what YOU enjoy. They pay property taxes in their rent for your parks, schools and government offices. With all these, the rich and middle class use all those expensive facilities far more than the poor.
10. While the poor are dis-proportionally incarcerated, contrary to what you might believe, it is the upper and middle incomes who have FAR more of a drug and alcohol problem than most of the poor, therefore these "deadbeats" are depending on "other people's kids" to support their bad habits with the facilities and health care they require.
I could go on and often do, and while it is sad that people like these ignoramuses think *they* are the only ones paying taxes and supporting communities while enjoying the benefits of this pooled cost, well they are wrong. "Other people's kids" are paying far more for all this ~ or if they are still children, will in the future.
If the rich who pay less than 2% of their millions paid the 15-20% that a welfare mom pays, we would ALL be sitting pretty and be trillions better off.
They can find the stats I speak about with the Labor statistics for women and pay. The tax information I use is here: Look up their state and they will see the poor pay more than any other class:
http://www.itepnet.org/state_reports/whopays.phpCat in Seattle
Pee Ess: Feel free to cut and past my comment and send it along. While it is off the top of my head, it is all true and might help, though from the looks of this letter, I am wondering if my time is not wasted because this person is not very informed (as usual with these people).