Where do all of our taxes go? How are they distributed? I’ve always wondered about that, and then ran across this site.
Follow this link here. To see what I’m talking about.
It’s quite interesting indeed huh.
What Happens With Our Taxes?
Taxes • Author: Anna Newell Jones
Tags: april 15th · federal funding · how is my tax money used · how to get out of debt quick · i have no money · paying tons in taxes · spending fast blog · tax day · the white house · what is paid for with my tax money? · where does my tax money go? · where is my money going? · why are taxes so expensive
Interesting indeed… I love that one quote from the 1960s: "It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber”. It makes sense to me anyway, but I was raised by major hippies. ;)
I find it interesting that so much of my money goes to pay for other people's health care when I can't afford my own copays and insurance payments. Kind of makes me mad that 47% of Americans pay no taxes and those of us who do carry those who don't.
I guess I shouldn't get too mad, since my income comes from social security disability and really the taxes we pay are mostly from my husband's salary as an IT engineer. So I maybe would fall into the category of those who are being supported? But I pay for my healthcare and we buy our insurance.
I keep thinking about my son's teeth and the $30,000 in dental work he needs and how we are going to have to find a way to pay for so much of it because of insurance capping his benefit at $1500 a year. So much money that we have to pay out for our own health care and yet we are contributing to the health care of all of those that don't work for a living. Being on disability, I can sure see it from both sides, but I'm not on medicaid and neither are my kids. We have to pay if we go to the doctor.
This must be rankling because of all the uncovered dental expenses we have coming up. My thought is that we make filing our taxes as easy as filling out a postcard and get rid of all the hidden deductions that allow corporations to get away with murder and stop refunding money to people who haven't earned anything all year.
Just my thoughts…
I am first generation Swedish American. My parents came to the U.S. after the war. Every year my father would have a date set that would be the day he was done paying taxes for the year. Usually it was around March. He also had the date set for Sweden. It was always in July. That meant every penny he had earned up to that time went to taxes. He thought America was a great country tax wise. I know there is a lot of waste. It is frustrating. But we have clean water, good roads, sewage systems that work access to doctors and hospitals(even thought we can't afford them), police, fire all sorts of protections not provided by other countries. So I try to concentrate on my not wasting of my own resources but alas I find it hard.
To Chelle – I hope you are able to read this. I keep reading about your $30,000 dental cost that is obviously a big problem, I felt I had to suggest something? Why not try looking to have it done in other countries? There is an industry called "Medical Tourism" — we have the same situation here in Austrealia about "capped benefits" from the medical insurance -so most major dental work we need done, we go overseas. I am from the Philippines so it is easier and cost-friendly to go back there and have it done – did you know that a lot of doctors from the Philippines can practice in the US? It's because our educational system is similar to yours (US) they only need to pass board exams there to practice. In case going to a "third world country" for treatment does not reassure you, you can check Singapore or Malaysia which were UK colonies so they would have good health systems. $30,000 is wayyyyyyy to much. You might be able to get things done for 30% of the price or so including airfare and a "vacation".
To High Heeled Traders,
Sorry, but that idea makes me VERY nervous. My son has an enamel defect which affects every single one of his teeth which did not produce enamel to cover the dentin underneath. He will need caps on every tooth hence, the approximately $30,000 cost. We have a dentist here in Virginia that we trust implicitly and will be fighting to get the insurance company to cover 80% of three caps per year until he is out of college and can get a job with his own health insurance benefits and take over the rest.
I agree that $30,000 in dental work is astronomical and it should be covered as a medical condition, but because it only affects his teeth, the health insurance will not agree to pay for any of it. So unfortunately we cannot combine benefits from both medical and dental. But, the (only) good thing is that he cannot do that many teeth per year. The dentist says it would be too traumatic for him, both physically and emotionally to get them all done at once. He will go for the first one later this month, go back a month later for the permanent crown on that tooth and start on the second. Go back one month later and get the permanent for that one. That reaches our $1500 maximum for the year and then we will decide whether to do a third tooth this year and pay the $982 it will cost out of pocket. The dentist has informed me that he has three teeth that need fairly immediate attention.
He will be in college for approximately 3 more years (maybe 4) and we can cover him on our insurance until he gets a job with benefits, at which time he can take over.
I appreciate the thought, but I just would not be comfortable even going out of state to a dentist we did not know. To go to a foreign dentist who is not possibly familiar with this particular "specialty" problem just isn't an option. But thank you for trying to help. Unfortunately, this is just one of those things you end up when you have kids and you find a way to work around, like car repairs and eyeglasses.
The only other thought I had was the local college has a dental school and will do work for free if you are willing to allow dental students to practice on you. But I pretty much immediately let that thought go, because the work needs to be done properly and by a true professional. I wouldn't mind the students doing routine things like x-rays and cleanings, but not something this extensive. And if a crown is not done properly, it can cause massive problems with infections later. My husband had one once that actually ate through his sinus cavity. So, we're going to stick with this dilemma and find a way. Maybe a fundraiser? ;o)
my mom actually went to a university dental school to have a tooth replaced. it took longer than usual but it was about 1/3 of the cost.