TAXATION EXPLAINED TO THE MASSES

Suppose that every evening, 10 men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The 10 men drank in the bar every evening and were quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner said "Since you are all such good customers, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20". Drinks for the 10 men would now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share? They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.

Therefore, the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing.
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "But he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a buck too. It's unfair - he got 10 times more benefit than me!"

"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy always win!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists, labor unions and government ministers, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

"Public Notice"

Please be advised - I am sick of receiving questions and phone calls about my dog who mauled:
3 Muslims sitting on a rug next to my back fence,
6 illegal's wearing Obama T-shirts,
4 stupid Democrats wearing Pelosi T-shirts,
2 rappers,
5 phone operators wanting me to press #1 for English,
9 teenagers with their pants hanging down past their butt cracks,
8 customer service people speaking in broken English,
10 flag burners,
and a Pakistani taxi driver.

*FOR THE LAST TIME...*

*THE DOG IS NOT FOR SALE !!!"*

Health Care Reform? Right...

How do we "reform" Health Care Reform?

Stand on its throat until it quits flopping around, kick it into a shallow grave and move on to fixing a broken, overpaid and greedy system.

Ever spend any time in an Emergency Room and later find out that a Q-tip cost you $4? How about a plain old bandaid at $6? How about that courtesy package, the pan, water pitcher, puke tray, etc... ? Any idea what you have paid for those? Even if you never used any of it?

Think I'm making this up? Check the itemized list of your last visit's bill... you DO get an itemized list don't you?

I couldn't blame you "to" much if you didn't, its a terrifying thing, and might cause some of us to "go around the bend".

Is it REALLY that hard to see where the real problems in the cost of health care are?

We, as a family, have been saddled with some of the poorest and often some of the best care I've ever seen, seems to depend on which "shift" of personnel you get or why you are there.

One night, after an incompetent Doctor gave a diabetic an oral steroid for a respiratory ailment, my wife was nearly killed by an RN that was to busy in a gossip session at the nurses station to administer a drug correctly. This RN had been FIRED (for incompetence) by this Health care organization at one of their hospitals, only to be immediately rehired at another.

A lowly respiratory tech just happened to hear my wife strangling behind the curtain as he walked by, he also just happened to be pushing a C-Pap machine. Only his actions saved her, the nurses would have never noticed. I had left the immediate area for just over 90 seconds.

Legal recourse? NONE... no I mean it, NONE. There is NO record of the incident, of the drug administered or of the use of a C-Pap machine to keep her alive until a Doctor got her stable. OR of the Doctors actions in saving her. No records at all. We have someone on the inside that went after those records for us for the next month, including the "private" and "secret" records. NOTHING. (according to our friend, all hospitals have a secret file, I can't prove that, but think on it...)

An over night ER visit turned into a 6 day ICU stay. Initial cost of the Hospital alone? $42K... in 6 days... because of an incompetent RN that had already been fired once for it. By the time it was done, that one incident cost me $120K.

Insurance? sure, good coverage and all premiums up to date, Denied for preexisting condition... That RN was NOT a preexisting condition...

The Doctor that hospitalized her to begin with? SENT ME A BILL for it. A foreign national that as far as I'm concerned, has NO business practicing medicine in the US to begin with, she's on the take with a sleep study outfit. You show up in her office for a boo-boo on your finger, you get a prescription for a $4000 sleep study, under the bullshit excuse of "quality of life".

"Quality of life" is a marketing term as far as I can tell.

This has made things even more difficult for us now. NO member of my family is EVER in one of these hospitals without another member of my family with them at all times, PERIOD. No matter why we are there for treatment.

We only use American Doctors, (Smith, Jones, White, Miller, whatever). Gender or skin has nothing to do with it, "Where were you trained Doctor?" is a common question. An answer like "Mumbai" or "Hong Kong", means we walk out. PERIOD.

I'm sure that there is some good training to be had in these places, we have just never seen any of it.

Is it really so difficult to see where the REAL problems, resulting in high costs, exist in health care? In a system that is still without a doubt the finest system in the world?

We don't need the idiots in congress to reinvent the wheel, we need them to repair and maybe regulate the one we are using.

Reform, Health Care Reform?

Start by murdering it.

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