My first actual blog type post in a long time...
So you know what really bugs me...? People's lack of understanding of how percentages work. I am by no means an expert, but I do understand that 50% off a $1 item is as good of a deal as 50% off a $10 item.
So earlier today I was watching a video where a girl was telling how she would spend money if she won the lottery. She said she would give about 10% to a charity. Someone left this comment as a response,
"I often think about what I would do with a large sum of money. First things first, 20% to charity. You're supposed to give 10% of all your income to charity anyway, if you're rich, it's supposed to be 20%."
To which I responded,
"I'm just wondering...is the 10% to charity based on the Bible concept of tithing? Because I understand, and do, that but am wondering where you got the 20% for the rich part. Because that's what's fabulous about percentages...a percentage is fair to everyone no matter their total money. 10% to a less fortunate person is technically the same overall equivalence as 10% for a rich person 10% of $100 is $10 and 10% of $1,000,000 is $100,000 sounds fair to me."
*Please take note that I normally don't leave comments like this on youTube because I know it will probably lead to a one-sided argument where the person who left the first comment will rant and rant but never take into consideration the other points being presented. However I just couldn't pass this one up*
The 10% discussion went back and forth (I only left the one comment because I felt like I got my point across with it- although I never did get an answer on where she got the rich should donate 20% part...) even with all the discussion some of the commenters still argued that a round percentage that covered all incomes isn't a fair way to 'charge' people.
So this brings me to my next point...taxes. *This is by no means a political post...because I hate politics and refuse to debate/discuss them.* However, taxes make a good example. Some people believe that the richer someone is the higher percentage of taxes that person should pay. That is beyond unfair. Lets say I make $200 a month and taxes are 10% (just humor me a little with my numbers). That means I pay $20 in taxes per month. Now lets say you make $3000 a month and also pay 10% taxes. That comes to $300. To someone who didn't know our incomes these numbers might seem unfair, but we actually have the same percentage of our income left over to use however we please.
However, if we go by the 'rich make more so they pay more percentage' theory and bump your taxes up to 20%, because lets face it you make a lot more then I do. You now pay $600 a month in taxes. This means you have 10% less take home money because you're dubbed as 'rich.' People who want to play percentages by income make me never want to have any money.
Anyway, I hope I got my point across...this is really only a rant about some peoples lack of knowledge about how percents work. Combine my rant with inability to sleep tonight and here we are...
On an unrelated topic- a friend of mine sold plasma yesterday for grocery money. I was actually joking two nights ago about selling plasma so I could have gas money, but wasn't actually going to do it. But I guess kudos for her for finding a way to feed her family...
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3 comments:
Beautiful! I'm with you completely!
//rant within rant commence//
I too hate politics, but only because I find them dreadfully confusing and everything dealing with them just seems redunkerous :P
I hate the fact that in two years rich people are going to get the heck taxed out of them. It is completely unfair. Why punish those who are doing well? Why punish those of us who have struggled to get to that position?
My hubbie has an opportunity to get a job that would be making a lot more than what we have been living off of. This would mean we could move out of our unsafe neighborhood, we could get a bigger house (we have a two bedroom that we outgrew a year ago, plus a bigger house means more room for more children and more room for anyone who needs a place to stay, right now all we have to offer is a couch, which people have kindly taken to in the past when they have nowhere to go, but I would love to be able to help more people out with housing, and we need a bigger house to do so), we could pay off our car, help people out financially (something we've always had the heart to do, but never the finances).
However, we are both skeptical because he would be making just enough to put us into that first tax bracket that is going to get taxed severely. True, we would have more money and we have agreed to always live as frugally as possible, so what is the big deal? The big deal is it's our money. My hubbie would be working hard for it, shouldn't we be able to use it how we see fit?
Another thing to take into consideration is that we would be paying two mortgages because in our neighborhood has turned into section 8, so although we are not renting, all around us are, so we can't sell the house, we would have to rent it out (and hope no one trashes it because that would be more money to have to spend). The area we would be moving to would of course cost more than where we live now, which is crazy to think about because we already live in an expensive area (one county over and you can have a 2 bed 3 bath house for what we are paying for our 2 bed 1 bath, and we live in a lower income county).
We would also no longer have food stamps and since I am on a special heart diet, which is expensive, we would then be spending that money out of pocket.
I hate to have to think about all of these things. We've been dirt poor for three years and are only now just getting caught up from my hubbie loosing his job in our first year of marriage. We used to barely be able to eat, if it weren't for my mother in law or the restaurant where I worked at three days a week, we would have been only eating one good meal a day. We've cut costs wherever possible. Through this whole ordeal, God has always, always taken care of us. This job opportunity would be such a blessing not only to us but to people we've been wanting to help out.
What good does raising taxes ever do? It only leads to minimum raise being raised and general cost of living being raised to accommodate, it is a vicious cycle.
//end rant within rant//
Thanks Hannah!
Pickled Panda- I feel where you are coming from. It can be so frustrating when you are finally starting to succeed and are proud of what you've reached, but everything around you is still trying to pull you down or punish you for it. I hope everything works out for you and your husband!
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