As I was walking into the Vons Supermarket on Manchester Blvd. in Inglewood, I noticed a table outside of the entrance with several petitions on it. The petition was to repeal the “Corporate Income Tax Credit,” or so the sign informed me. I got to thinking about this as I walked through the store.
Now, I’m no expert on tax law, but, from what I know from reading the IRS site—and having been the proprietor of a home business--businesses are cut a break on taxes just for being businesses. At minimum, a business provides employment and income for its owner and provides some sort of product or service for consumers. It seems to me that a tax break would put money into the pocket of an entrepreneur, which he/she would plow back into the business, spend at someone else’s business or put into a savings account at his/her bank. It seems to me that, with our economy in recovery from a recession, a tax break for businesses would assist the recovery process. Who would have a problem with that?
The jealousy minions, the income redistribution monsters, the government hand-out whores, that’s who. Larry Elder refers to these types as victicrats: the types that think that their every misfortune is the fault of those who have educated themselves, worked hard and become successful. The types that don’t have the smarts and/or the gumption to start their own business look at those who do and say to themselves, “they’re getting rich on my back.” They think that, by getting rid of the corporate tax breaks, they'd hurt big corporations like unlamented Enron or Halliburton. Wrong. They'd hurt the cleaning business up the street, owned by hard-working Jamaican immigrants or the interior design business on Crenshaw Blvd., owned by four older black American women, from whom my great-aunt bought her new carpet and drapes.
Contrast the corporate tax credit with the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). To qualify for EITC, you must make below $29,000 (single) a year and have at least one child. You have to be broke and have to have reproduced. Now, I’m not totally against the EITC—there are some people who’ve fallen on hard times that it will likely benefit--but I don't wonder what the reaction of some of the Vons shoppers would have been, had the petition advocated the repeal of the EITC. There would have been a riot outside of that store, what with all of the unwed mothers around here pocketing the taxpayers’ money—assuming any of them file tax returns at all. They need that money, dontcha know. Never mind that if they were so damn poor in the first place, they shouldn’t have been popping out pups in the second place. (And let's just say that I know most of them couldn't afford a kid before they got pregnant. Trust me on that one.)
So, the petitioners want to punish those who contribute to the health of the economy, but give no thought to those who are draining the taxpayers’ pockets dry through their trifling behavior.
All of the above went through my mind like lightening while I was shopping. When I walked outside and passed the table, I couldn’t restrain myself. “You wouldn’t be signing that if you had a business of your own,” I said over my shoulder to the man bent over the table, signing to the fact that he’s jealous of the productive members of this society.
