Samurai Appliance Repair Man
Fermented Grand Master of Appliantology
| Joined: | Mon Mar 21st, 2005 |
| Location: | Otterville, USA |
| Posts: | 12947 |
| Flavorite Brew: | Kirin Ichiban |
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It's a rough bidness we in, mah bruvahs. Back in my hay day, I was running 8 to 12 calls a day, everyday, including holidays and Sundays. I drove anywhere to fix anything for anyone. I grossed over $100K one year. And it about killed me. My family hardly saw me, my kids grew up and I didn't even know 'em, and it was rough on my marriage. My life sucked and I knew something had to change.
So, Mrs. Samurai, being real good with money and budgets, ran some interesting calcumulations. Turns out that out of that $100K+ that I made, we only kept a little more than half after we paid all the local, state, and federal taxes, including the self-employment tax, and medical insurance. We have three kids and medical insurance for a family of five is well over $1000/month, which would not be an onerous expense if I was allowed to simply keep the money that I earned. And I was making too much money to qualify for medicare for the kids.
Suddenly, the light bulb went off. We realized that if I simply worked less, my tax rate would go down, maybe even to the point that I would get earned income credits; we could qualify for medicare for the kids and maybe some other gubmint handout programs, too; and the quality of our family life would improve.
Now, I'm not a fan of all these gubmint handout and redistribution programs. But the sad reality is that most people are and keep electing socialists and Marxists to the White House and Congress because they think they're going get to a free lunch. So, our reality check: welfare ain't going away in our life time; the tax system is constructed in such a way to keep people from becoming financially independent, not to "tax the rich," as the class-warfare rhetoric goes. With that kind of confiscatory taxation, there was no incentive to work hard because all it was gonna git you was ulcers, a wrecked family life, and a big spare tire around your waist.
Since making money was not the answer, we looked at the other end of the money equation: spending less. We radically simplified our life and sold off a bunch of stuff we don't need, started a garden and raise chickens. Food is probably the second biggest expense in every household (rent or mortgage payment is usually #1). I do swap work with an organic dairy in Vermont (I fix his equipment in exchange for organic raw milk). This has substantially reduced our food expense. We rarely eat out at restaurants. We do not take expensive vacations to resorts or Disney World or any of that crap. But we do take vacations-- we go family camping in the summer. We don't go out to the movies; we rent from Netflix, instead. My 16 year-old daughter helps with income by babysitting and doing sewing repairs for people. My two boys help me on service calls. Mrs. Samurai homeschools the kids and is a consummate frugal gourmet. And now, with a lower income, the kids may soon qualify for medicare so we can drop our medical insurance. And our federal taxes have been slashed to almost nothing.
Our family life is vastly improved but we lament that the System is setup such that in order to survive with any kind of quality of life, you have to plan on deliberately living at the poverty line. The Welfare State has changed the "Land of the free and home of the brave," to the "Land of the freeloaders and home of the depraved." And, unless you're making several million dollars a year, like Hank Paulson was as CEO of Goldman Sachs, then the System forces you to live at the poverty line; it is futile to try to earn your way out of it because they just take more and more of what you make. The solution: work less, make less money, suckle the teat of the Welfare State, and cultivate an appreciation for things that don't require money (or not much, anyway): family, friends, a beautiful sunset, a cool garden, fresh eggs from your own chickens, a good book, a hike up a mountain, and hangin' here wif mah homeys. 
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