My father once told me that in order to make money, you have to give money to charities, etc. That it was a type of divine karma, powered by God. Later, when watching the Democratic debates between Clinton and Obama, he became angered and yelled, "And where is all that money coming from? From taxes on me!" I replied "Well, you should be taxed proportionately with your pay. It's better than taxing the poor beyond their capabilities to pay." He said "No, the poor should be taxed more, maybe it would inspire them to work so they can pay them." I just stared at him. How does this fit into his idea of having to do charitable works? All that money he just gave them now goes to their taxes? How does that make sense?
I think that money makes you a hypocrite. I think it causes you to challenge your morals and the beliefs instilled in you as a child by your parents and your place of worship. I think that what they say is true: that money is the root of all evil. It's nice to have enough to live comfortably, but why does everyone want to have an excess? The bible teaches against excess in all things. The vast majority of the seven deadly sins stem from excess: gluttony- excess of food, lust- excess of sexuality, envy- the want to have excess, etc. This lack of control comes from having too much of a good thing. Sure, my father can say that giving to a charity is a good thing, and it is, but when it comes to actually paying over an extended period of time so that something will actually effect a change in the makeup of society, he balks. He doesn't want to deal with the time or the effort. Wouldn't that be real charity? Not just giving a man ten dollars so he can eat one nice meal?
Money and Religion Applied to Society
By Starfish - Posted on March 5th, 2008
I saw that on another person's blog 'money is the root of all evil'. In 1 Timothy 6:10 it states that "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." I believe money is a good thing. Yeah, there are a lot of people out there who want to make it big-time and get rich for their personal gain. For me, having excess would allow me to be a blessing to others, giving to them when they need it.
Lately, my pastor has been talking about maximized living through maximized giving. Giving , in tithes and offerings, can open doors for one to receive more than they gave, enabling them to not just get by, but to be able to bless others because they have so much.
-Amanda-
The reason why your father is upset is because he has no choice in the matter of what he is giving and where it is going. A lot of this money is being wasted on ill-advised projects that do not work. The money is essentially being taken from your dad and used for some nonsense when something much cheaper would work. Say if u have an allowance and u had to pay somebody so that your school cafeteria can build a large skylight, which incidentally makes the room much colder. Would u want that? The money is not going towards a good cause in most instances, so its not helping people.
Yes money does tend to lead to excess because how much is enough? You always need to have enough money saved up for when an emergency occurs. Most people would prefer having enough money to allow one to do something fun every once in a while. WIth most costs such as gas, food, and education increasing there is always a pressing need to make more money. Plus everyone needs enough money to support them when they retire. Its hard to tell when enough is enough, or when enough turns into excess. its a thin, blurred line between the extremes.
Also a brief economics lesson. There are essentially 3 different ideas about how to tax people with different ideas behind each.
There is taxing the wealthy because they have the excess cash. The problem with this is that there are a lot less wealthy people than poor people. These individuals tend to be highly productive, but if they are taxed at high rates they are less likely to be productive. So if they might have built a new company and put in a lot of work they may not anymore because the cost is too much relative to the benefit.
There is taxing the poor which would work because there are a lot of them and even jsut a slight increase in taxes would produce a lot of money, probably more than just taxing the rich would. However the poor are the least able to pay, and if taxes are too high some may be tempted to go underground. and avoid paying. Very few would actually be motivated to work so taht they could pay
Then there is taxing everyone at the same rate. Nobody can complain because everyone has the same percentage but the people who have trouble paying have to pay while the rich are paying less than they could.
You know upon rereading your post and seeing how long my comment was I have to apologize. Some of what I responded with are only marginal issues that u barely touched on. So I'm sorry for being loquacious.
Essentially i was trying to say that a lot of tax money is wasted and not used nearly as efficiently as it should be. Since each new project requires more money, your father is tired of having to pay for these mistakes
Yes excess does lead to numerous problems. However it is hard to tell when having enough money to live a comfortable life becomes excess.
I think I just boiled down a page of comments into about a paragraph. Wow
I'll start with Amanda's post- I agree with you and sorry that I misquoted. I was just going by the cliche. I think that giving most likely comes back to you in receiving, though not in the form you gave, if that makes sense.
To WhyWorry- don't worry about the long post, I enjoyed reading it. I understand why he doesn't want to pay taxes (who does, really?) and I know that not all of it goes for what you would like to pay for. I realize this. I recently heard a story about a crapload of money going to Alaska to pay for bridges to go to islands that no one goes to or even wants to go to. That's ridiculous. But I was going for more of the general idea, not the bizarre specifics that Congress feels obliged to spend the public's money on. It's the effect of a corrupted system led by a bunch of old white guys who are concerned about getting re-elected and beefing up their resumes. I wasn't really thinking about that when I wrote my post.
I understand people want money; I want it too. It just upsets me when people are so concerned with going on their vacations or saving up for a theoretical catastrophe (I'm NOT saying that isn't a good thing to save your money on, it is) that they have to begrudge people the resources to exist in a comfortable state.
Thanks for the economics lesson, and while I understand your point perfectly, I'm essentially a creature of fairness and justice. I remain of the opinion that taxation should be proportional. I don't think it should be to a severe degree, considering my background (father makes a lot and both of my parents are exceedingly Republican) but I think that there should be some increase of taxes upon the rich.