Over the years I have paid a lot of money into taxes. I consider my self lower middle class because I struggle to pay the bills so my wife doesn’t have to work. I’m not really sure if the amount of money I do make puts me at a middle class or not, and it really doesn’t matter.

I know that sounds bad to say I’m lower middle class, and the people that have both husband and wife working may even make more than me. The thing is that, I have tried to position my family so that my wife doesn’t have to work. This means that I only have 1 running car, and I have a car that broke down on me. Because of the payments of the 1 car, I’m not able to get the other car fixed or buy another car. The bills for the most part get paid each month and I’m swimming in debt.

I have about 25% of my check go to taxes. State, Federal, Social Security, and Medicare. I pay State taxes because I live in GA. The Federal, SS, and Medicare are all Federal taxes, yes SS is a tax, and not a contribution. To me contribution means that it is a choice, and SS is forced on everyone.

So lets say that FlatTax or FairTax was in place. I would get 100% of my check, minus the State Taxes. So lets for get about the State Tax for a minute. If you make $1000.00 before taxes you would get a check for $1000.00. This money would be used any way you see fit. If you would like to save it, then it would be your choice. If you chose to spend it on an item and the FairTax was set at a rate of 25%, then an item that was $100.00 would cost you $125.00.

Now there is the saying with the money that companies would save not having to deal with payroll taxes, that products would decrease in price. So the $100.00 might be as low at say $80.00. At a 25% rate, that would make the item $100.00. So, looking at that, you would still only spend $100.00 on the item instead of $125.00.

Something else to look at with your $1000.00. 25% of 1000 is 250. That is a 1 to 4 ratio. I hope you see what I’m getting at. At a 1 to 4 ratio, or .25 or 25%, of your $1000.00 you have paid in taxes. That $100.00 item has cost you $125.00 already.

So looking at the possibility of saving the $25 for everyone $100 you spend sounds great. It is like buying 4 $100 items and getting the 5th one free.

I’m sure it is a lot more complicated than that on the back end. I’m really not sure that the Big Business people would ever go for having to pay Federal Taxes on items that they buy. By that I mean that if you make enough money, or are high enough in a company you do not pay any taxes. Some CEOs get a bonus from the company or it comes from the share holders to pay for the CEOs taxes. That is also taxed the next year, and so another bonus is given the next year to cover the taxes, and the cycle continues.

I’m all about people paying their fair share. Right now you may be spending the $125.00 on the $100.00 item, while the owner of your company is paying $100.00 on the $100.00 item.

Not only is it not fair, but you are the one that is helping him be able to avoid paying taxes. That is called tax evasion in the country. People like that belong in jail.

I pay my taxes, even if I do believe that I should be paying them. I don’t really have a choice. Pay them or go to jail. I would much rather it be done fairly, so that everyone, including the non U.S. citizens, pay taxes. There are really to many loop holes in the system now and a fair tax would fix about 90% of them I feel.

Sunday was the day of the wedding. We got up and headed to a store to get a gift bag for the, what else, gift. We also went by the drug store to get a small sewing kit so that I could fix a button on my shirt. Then we headed to the park where the wedding was taking place.

When we got there we were at a loss of where to go. I know it was supposed to be a stoned circle, but I couldn’t tell anything from the map at the park about the stoned circle. A friend came down from the hill and let us know where it was being held at. So we trucked up the hill.

It was a great day for a wedding. The sun was out, the breeze was nice, but it had its cold moments with the gust. The groom was in all white, and the groom’s men were in white and khaki. All of the bride’s maids were in purple.

It was a Celtic style wedding. So it was much different from your traditional style church wedding.

It was wonderful to see Will and Katie get married. I really do wish them the best of luck in all of their endeavors.

On Saturday night we headed over to a friends house for their engagement party. I had to dress up in a coat and tie.

I’m not really fond of the whole coat and tie look. People always say that it is for proper dinners and such but I’m not that much of a proper guy. I just enjoy being comfortable.

So we hung out with some of our other friends there, and had some dinner. I was introduced to the ladies side of the family. I was also able to nail down the fact that I’m in the wedding. By nailed down, I mean that my wife knows now. They say that I was told but I don’t remember being told. It doesn’t matter though. I hope that it is the last time that I have to wear tux for a while.

We had a good time, sat down and ate some dinner and had some cake. We enjoyed hanging out with all of our friends that were there. We had to soon depart to make it to another reception party back at my friends house in Dacula.

In Dacula, we hung out. I played a couple games of darts and had a few beers. Gave the bride and groom my best wishes for the next day, and they retired. Shortly after that we headed out to find a hotel. We really didn’t want to spend the gas money to drive back to our house and then back out there again for the wedding the next day.

I had a good time at both places. The bed was decent for a $66 hotel room.

Friday night was great. I had left work early so that I would be able to catch a ride with a friend of mine to another friends house. The friends house that were where head to happened to be getting married and Friday night was his bachelor party.

So I hung out up in Dacula for a spell. More people arrived before we headed down to Oasis in Norcross.

Wow. It was a blast. I have been to strip clubs before, but never with these guys. There was T & A all over the place. I’m not going to reveal the full details of the Oasis. It is just something that your will have to experience for your self. Just make sure you have at least $100.

I also stopped drinking a few hours into it. A good thing that I did too. My wife was my DD. You always need a DD these days. The only reason that I was going to have the wife pick me up was because we had an engagement party that we needed to be at the following night. So I get a cab and head to pick her up and drive the car to the house.

What an evening. It was great and I had a great time. The wife also said that she had a great time out with her friends as well. So over all, the weekend started off great.