Why April Is a Good Month For Work Serfs

When you look at it from a certain standpoint, April is an appropriate month to pay taxes. The reason? Every lick of work you've performed for pay since the first of the year, and then some, you've done to fill the coffers of your elected representatives to squander as they choose. No medieval serf could have done better.

This year, on average, every dime Americans earned before April 9 will be handed over to the government in taxes. That's on average. In some states, like Mississippi, taxpayers are done harvesting money for the Government by March 28th, and they can proceed to focus on feeding, clothing, and sheltering the people under under their own roofs. In other states, like New York, where I live, Joe and Jane Average will still be sweating on the Gov't Estate until April 23.

The Day you start earning money for your own needs and desires is broken down by state on the following map. (Click on map for a better view.)

Sound like a bargain with all that free (cough, cough) health care and all? Whoa. Hold on. You mean you'd like you know when you start working for yourself if you pay your end of this year's debt, too?

In that case, on average, you won't even start paying your own rent until May 17, an additional 38 days. Uh huh.

Thirty-eight days of extra work, this year, just to pay for this year's debt, which actually is a drop in the debt bucket.

Let's see, in New York State that would mean Joe and Jane Average will work until (calculating . . . ) June 2.

January 1 to June 2th. That's five full months.

Five months of the year devoted to fulfilling every wish of our elected representatives. If you live in New York State, that's more than 40% of your work life. Every stinking bit of work you did throughout January, February, March, April, May, and part of June just to cover whatever your elected officials think you should be paying for instead of what you're trying to pay for.

And if you don't live in New York State, it's nearly as bad.
 
Here's the breakdown from The Tax Foundation:

Five major categories of taxes dominate the tax burden. Individual income taxes—including federal, state and local—require 32 days' work. Payroll taxes take another 25 days' work. Sales and excise taxes, mostly state and local, take 15 days to pay off. Corporate income taxes take 8 days, and property taxes take 12. Americans will log 6 more days to pay other miscellaneous taxes, most notably including motor vehicle license taxes and severance taxes, and about half a day for estate taxes.

 Tired yet?

I am.

And that's not something I'll be forgetting when it comes to supporting the agendas of my local, state, and federal Gov't overseers.
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