A taxing tale...

Imagine that you have a package to ship somewhere. Basically there are three choices, UPS, FedEx or USPS, two private companies and the other a federal government entity. Money to send the package comes from your income; income leftover after some of it was taxed by the federal government, proprietor of one of the three shipping choices. Accounting gimmick-wise, USPS does not receive direct tax revenue, but it loses billions of dollars every year and never has to pay anything back, you tell me where the difference comes from. So in a sense, you are paying for, by taxes, the advertisement of a product that competes against others for your hard earned post-tax income.

What if you were to choose one of the others? While neither FedEx nor UPS is government owned they are definitely well represented in Washington in disparate ways. Many UPS employees belong to unions, unions that take mandatory dues from the paychecks of those employees and send 90% of a large portion of those dues to democrat politicians. Additionally, UPS pays lobbyists to coerce legislators to pass laws forcing unionization on FedEx employees which is a win for both sides. FedEx has to pay more to offer its services and more union members mean more campaign contributions for democrat politicians. Your taxed income pays for the salaries of politicians and DC venues to discuss making one company’s business more difficult while your post-tax income spent on a UPS package pays salaries for employees that have money withheld by unions who give it to democrats for campaigns and for lobbyists to talk those politicians whose campaigns are funded by UPS employees union dues into making their competitor’s business harder and enriching the politician’s campaign chests, which will be passed on to you in terms of higher prices for purchasing something from FedEx, money left over after paying for politicians to discuss policies that leaves you with less and less.

Convoluted enough for you? A day late and a dollar short, happy tax day!