Thursday, October 11, 2007

Today, I Stopped Giving to Charity

I’m at my boiling point. I just got pestered for another charity donation today. The CFC (Combined Federal Campaign) representative spoke to me about giving to charity saying that I could give a blanket amount to a number of charities, to one charity, or I could give money that comes out of my paycheck every month to any charity/charities. And at that moment, as I was reading the headlines (thank you John Edwards), it occurred to me that every day that I work, I already give to charity whether I like it or not. I give in the form of taxes.

Why do I consider paying taxes giving to charity? Because the act of taking my money in the form of taxes is the same act as the one that is being used to fund the poor. It is being used to fund “welfare programs” “for the common good”, that in many cases allows certain people who have no desire to work, to live without working. That money is being used to pay for medical services for people who either cannot afford to pay (due to being taxed to death) for medical insurance, or for people who refuse to pay for medical insurance and do not want to pay out of pocket. It is used to pay the “retirement fund” known as social security which is social but far from secure, and that I do not expect to see a penny of in my lifetime, that requires a COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment) annually and yet again has built in medical coverage. It even helps support medical insurance for “underprivileged children” between 3 months and 25 years whose parents make less than $85k/year. Somehow, I don't consider a family that earns $85k/year in need of charity. Then again, I don't consider anyone over the age of 18 legally a child either.

What other ways am I giving to charity? I have no children, and even if I did, I would not send them to public schools. But as a taxpayer, my money goes to the salaries of underperforming principals who hire undereducated teachers, who act even more under-qualified when they teach those poor underage souls that are so "underprivileged" that they must go to public schools and learn nothing but how to be complete underachievers. This of course leads to more money being taken out of my pocket in the form of taxes to pay for the next batch of welfare/charity recipients. And this could be avoided if the average worker was not taxed to the point where affording a good education for their children was out of the question. So yet again, my taxes insure that more people will not be in a position to pay them.

Speaking of welfare/charity, my tax dollars pay for subsidies for farmers so that they can grow… nothing! Paying farmers to grow/harvest nothing sounds like charity to me. I know I don’t want my tax dollars to go to that.

And that leads to more corporate charity. Because now we have created a society of useful idiots that are good for nothing but asking if you want fries with that and earning minimum wage, the congress has passed laws that lead to the loss of jobs due to a higher minimum wage and “better” benefits. Of course those higher wages leads to higher prices at the businesses we choose to do business with, all while creating more charity recipients. All the while, these same congress critters are assigning even more of my hard earned tax dollars to the purpose of "earmarks" that they never have to claim responsibility for (thanks Hillary and Barack). These of course are their charitable donations of my tax dollars to buy votes to get themselves re-elected. Mind you that this is also the same congress has also approved pay raises for themselves and better benefits on my tax dollars that I did not approve of. And since they are doing such a poor job representing their constituents, they clearly are not earning their wages. Yup, that too is charity.

Of course, I did not approve of my tax dollars funding the legal appeals process of criminals who get three squares a day and free lodging (at better conditions than some folks who live in the inner city). But my money goes to their care and feeding and even organ replacement/sexual reassignment surgery and medical care. Yet again, my tax dollars are being charitably donated by my government to other people and causes that I do not approve of, all at my expense.

I think the last straw about my tax dollars being used as charity is the entire fact that every year, Presidential and congressional campaigns get the option of using matching federal funds to fund their election efforts. So they are telling me that my money that is being forcefully extracted from my paycheck in the form of taxes is being used to fund the campaigns of people that I do not like, much less want to see in office, as they run for office. No thank you, John McCain and Russ Feingold. And thank you for telling me that you were going to use my money in that fashion John Edwards. Like I really want to see you, of all former congress critters, in office as President. Seriously, thank you for raising my taxes. I don’t need that money. Well, not for anything other than funding my own retirement, paying for my own medical insurance, being responsible for my own future and the future of my wife and children when I get married and have children. So I clearly do not need that money.

And people wonder why I refuse to donate to charity. And I said this to the poor sod who hit me up for the CFC. Of course the really sad thing is that she agreed with me.

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