Metroman,
your statements are totally erroneous.
Pensions have been re-worked, not shredded. Even if I don't contribute 1 penny to my pension this year, my employer will be putting $40,000... in MY name. Something I will own even if the carrier files for Chapter 7 liquidation tomorrow. I also contribute an additional $11,000, PRE TAX, on top of that, which will also serve to lower my taxable income by that amount.
No FO in Asia gets the kind of compensation that a US Legacy airline captain makes. And, by contrast, my FO today told me his hours for the month. A quick calculation shows he is making more than me. He's still getting half the month off and is nearly 4,000 numbers JUNIOR to me. So even as a Narrowbody FO, you can still make a good living. It's not at all uncommon for me to fly with FOs who are way junior to me and who are maikng $4-5,000 more that month than I am. I don't like to fly all that much any more, they do. So they can far exceed basic Captain wages if they're willing to put in the work.
As far as taxes, it is what it is. Everyone pays taxes, save for certain countries in the Middle East and maybe a few others. Sure we spend way too much on wars but our military also does a lot of good, like peace keeping, diplomatic negotiations (only taken seriously because of our military might) and humanitarian aid, such as the Typhoon Hayian relief efforts going on right now. I am proud to pay my fair share of taxes in that regard.
When I worked in India, as an example, I paid far more taxes than I ever will in the US and with almost no tax deductions to lower my taxable income. Yet they as a society get almost nothing for it. The country leaves most of it's citizens to fend for themselves despite the high tax rate. It rarely, if ever, contributes to the global aid community, and puts off mass amounts of pollution from its un-regulated factories who dump untold amounts of chemicals into rivers and streams that flow into the world's oceans. Hence, there wasn't much to be satisfied about when it came to paying taxes.
IMO, you pay or you pay or you pay. In TX there is no state income tax but they get you in high electric bills and huge property tax rates. Whereas in California you pay (up to) 10% in state income tax far less in property tax and almost nothing in electric. In the US you get infrastructure for your taxes paid. What do you get in, say, India, as an example? Where the top tax rates are just as high. Most of our government institutions require some form of initial taxation to function, like the State Dept, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, FDA, USDA, FAA, FBI, CIA, EA, FEMA, NTSB, DOE, DOT and, dare I say, IRS, NSA, DHS, TSA, and the DOD. And while every citizen seems to loath big government, and perhaps prefers to perpetuate broad-brushed sinister conspiracy theories as to how or why each institutions came to be, the fact of the matter remains that good government requires such infrastructure to be in place in order to work and function properly. So the taxes are what the taxes are. The society functions as it should because of the taxes paid. Sure Singapore pays less in income taxes but there are plenty of hidden taxes that the society must pay. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely HATE paying taxes and I am a firm believer in the flat tax system of say 9% coupled with much smaller government. But there are counter arguments to the claim that the US tax system is too burdensome. It is, to be sure, but we get some things for it.
Last edited by Geebz; 23rd Nov 2013 at 09:24.