Socialism's End-Game Is Upon Us....

...because all of the spending being done by Washington, by our state governments, by our local governments, has to be paid for by someone. And that someone is...you and me.

Item 1:

While President Obama's push to raise federal income taxes for the wealthy gets lots of attention, the continuing upward creep in the sales tax rates imposed by state and local governments has gotten less notice.
But Vertex Inc., which calculates sales tax for Internet sellers, reports that the average general sales tax rate nationwide reached 8.629% at the end of 2009, the highest since the Berwyn, Pa., company started tracking data in 1982...

See? The end result of socialism dawns early in America..."I was all for it, when they said they would force the rich to pay for it. Then I realized...it was I was whom they considered "the rich"....

First, the rich. Then, the middle class. Eventually - as in now - the poor and aged:

A little-noticed law could soon result in smaller Social Security checks for hundreds of thousands of the elderly and disabled who owe the U.S. money from defaulted loans and other debts more than a decade old.

Previously, the U.S. hasn't been able to withhold Social Security payments to recover most debts delinquent for more than ten years.
But a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill lifted the ten-year statute of limitations on the government's ability to withhold Social Security benefits in collecting debts other than student loans...and income taxes.,..

This means that a person who defaulted on a small-business loan in 1995, for example, and who is receiving Social Security could be notified that his benefits may be reduced each month until the debt, with interest, fees, and penalties, is paid. The Treasury can withhold 15% of the benefit, though it can't be reduced to below $750. Tax debts have no floor.

"Tax debts have no floor", of course, because that's money you owe to the government. So they can bleed an elderly or disabled person to bankruptcy or death (for a mistake made decades ago) in order to recoup monies needed to pay for Son of Stimulus III, or abortions under ObamaCare, or whatever spending urge the current powers that be may need to have fulfilled.

And of course, there is always the opportunity to take successful businesses and do a "break-out", Sopranos-style. Politicians thought this would take some time to destroy their economy; see how shocked they are when they learn the adverse affects are instantaneous:

Amazon.com Inc. cut ties Monday with Colorado online businesses that help it sell products because of a new state law aimed at getting out-of-state, online retailers to collect sales tax.

The move hurts businesses—many of them small, home-based operations—that earn money by using their Web sites and blogs to link customers to online retailers. Colorado has at least 4,200 such businesses, known as affiliates or associates, accounting for about 5,000 jobs, and most of them rely on Amazon to some degree, according to their trade group, the Performance Marketing Association.

Note the rage when the hold-up goes haywire:

Democratic lawmakers, including Gov. Bill Ritter, criticized Amazon for cutting off affiliates, with some calling it "corporate bullying." They said Amazon will still be on the hook to either collect the tax or tell their customers to pay it.

"They've done nothing here but spit in our face," Senate Majority Leader John Morse said.

Who's the bully? The Democrats who tried to shake down a successful business, or the business who fought back? And should Morse really be angry when, at the point of a gun, Amazon refused to turn over the money but instead hocked a lugie in his general direction? Doesn't that make them...heroes? And aren't Ritter and Morse really both simply scared sh*tless that Colorado residents will rightfully blame them for a failed heist?

What is ours will soon become theirs. All of our earnings will become their revenue; with a pittance left behind to feed and clothe ourselves, and our families, as our dollars get redistributed to the unproductive.

Just wondering: Can I get paid in gold? I'll convert what I need into cash, and bury the rest in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.....