NOW PLAYING: Up 'n' Down

01 February, 1999
It's been like that, the past couple of weeks -- up 'n' down. The Vikings managed to lose to the Falcons, creating yet another Super Bowl that I didn't care about (and didn't watch). Instead, the media (and even some of the "regular" people) in Atlanta were hyping the team endlessly, and God help me, if it means the end of that accursed "Dirty Bird" crap, I hope the Falcons never go to another Super Bowl.

So the "victory parade" scheduled for today in downtown Atlanta has turned into a "We're just happy to have been there at the end of the season" parade, and just for emphasis, it's cold and rainy, too. At least there wasn't any rioting and tear gas needed here.

The whole week previous has been gorgeous, though -- sunny and above 70° (F). Top-down-in-the-Miata time. In January. Man, we're bound to pay for that later. Probably get 6" of snow in March. It's back to a typical 40-and-rainy for now.

The W2 tax forms showed up, too. Yay. Discovered that I paid more in taxes than The Wife earned... Now granted, she only works part-time, but that's still a depressing discovery.

You know, if we had to write one yearly check for our tax bills like it was before FDR instituted "withholding" from paychecks during WWII -- to facilitate getting money for the war effort, and then never rescinded afterwards like it was supposed to be -- where was I? Oh yeah, if we had to write a single check each year for our taxes, Americans would grab pitchforks and descend on Washington as a howling mob. If you have your W2, take a look at it and see how much you paid in taxes (include your FICA, Medicare, etc.), and imagine writing that amount on a check. Every year.

In fact, if you asked the average schmoe "How much did you pay in taxes this year?" chances are you'd get a dumb smile out of him as he replies, "I didn't pay anything — I'm getting money back!"

God, the politicians must absolutely love that.

The Wife and I looked in Quicken, and the tax monies we paid were more than the total of our housing and food bills combined.

Ouch.

That figure didn't include Sales Tax, the Taxes on gasoline we buy, hotel or airline ticket Taxes, or any of the myriad other sneaky Taxes we all pay every day. Just Federal and State income taxes.

Now, we don't have any fancy "Tax Shelters" (though maybe we ought to look into that), and we haven't filed our return to "get back" any deductions, expenses, etc., yet, but I'd be willing to bet there's a lot of folks in that same situation...

... and that's a real downer.

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