Ryan Ginstrom wrote:

> "Eric Takabayashi" <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message
> news:408E848B.45F197D4@yahoo.co.jp...
> > (about ten million yen from elementary through high school per child). I
> know local millionaires, but only
> > on this newsgroup have I ever encountered people who actually claim that
> what someone pays in taxes is
> > enough to cover what is spent on them.
>
> If you count government debt as something that taxpayers pay (they certainly
> do, unless the government goes out of business), then on average everyone
> must pay their way by definition.

We are not talking about average. Those with more income pay more. Those with
less income pay less. Some pay nothing. And no, everyone does not "pay their
way". 80% of salaried employees pay less than 200,000 yen a year in income
taxes, according to the Mainichi. That doesn't pay for a series of suspension
bridges and a highway to Shikoku in a city of 92,000, schools and hospitals in
the mountains two hour's drive from the city in a town of about 3,000, or the
needs of a bedridden woman who lives to be 119 with 80 year old children of her
own.

But "on average", the national debt of 700,000,000,000,000 yen and annual
revenue shortfalls of about 40% (less than 46 trillion in revenues vs 82
trillion in expenditure for 2004) mean that people in Japan are not paying
enough in taxes.

I am well aware that companies and those who get or spend money are paying for
me, my part timer wife, and my unemployed children. I appreciate it. I can't
pay a million yen a year for school for each of my kids, or to build and pave
the road to work or to build JR lines, highways and airports I sometimes use.
Serving the rest of the public is what taxes are for. If average people were
actually able and willing to pay their own way, they'd be doing it like with
the American medical system, also ignoring the needs of tens of millions of
people who can't.

Thank God for governments who collect money to serve people who are likely
unable to pay to take care of themselves, particularly when they become old or
find themselves in trouble. How many people on this group are saving to live to
past 120? How many people on this group can pay if their kids say they want to
go to one of those medical universities that cost 15 million a year, plus move
out and have a new apartment of their own in the city? How many people on this
group can spend the 200 million yen I hear it costs Japanese to go to the US
for a heart transplant for their dying children? How many people here can
afford the 250,000 USD a MONTH some gene drugs cost in the US? I'd need the
community's help, and be thankful for it.

Other people need to stop pretending that those with more money are not paying
for them as well, and stop bitching about "a single yen" spent on those who
make unwise decisions such as the Japanese hostages, pretending it was their
own money being spent. It is the people like the president of Toyota, Matsui,
or Masayoshi Son who should be complaining, but interestingly enough, are not.
I know a woman who can complain to no end about taxes. She is a pharmacist, and
her husband is a doctor with a private hospital. Their costs are increased
considerably, because for example, in addition to salaries, they pay BOTH the
employer's share and the employee's share of taxes and insurance, as well as
their own self employed burden. IIRC, their child was going to be a doctor,
too. Despite their complaints, they see the need to look after those with less,
such as their employees.

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