The western financial and governmental system lives and thrives on the accumulation of taxable things and the illusion that taxes can be evaded. "Stuff" is taxable, large houses create huge tax revenue, huge mortgages create a huge revenue stream for the banks with the illusion that the expense is a tax writeoff. Purchases for the house on credit-cards give the banks a 20% a year revenue stream. The 401K investment stream gives the brokerages a 30% revenue stream from index arbitrage. The collective taxes, medicare and social security taken out of wage earners is the largest since WWII and most of it is money the worker will never see again. Society demands that we earn a higher salary, drive a better car, buy a bigger house. The drug companies require that we see doctors to get prescriptions for expensive medications that can be bought for pennies over-the-counter in Mexico. We pay no-fault car insurance, mortgage insurance, life insurance, fire insurance, health insurance, death insurance. The system is designed to keep most of our salaries going into insurance, taxes and mortgage.
An elderly friend of mine once said "we spend the first half of our lives accumulating things and the second half giving them away". A growing countertrend in the U.S. is the number of retirees that downsize into a condo or motorhome, give away the stuff, give the money to the kids. Barter rather than buy. Stop paying the taxes and insurance on the castle that turned into a prison. Less is more, the maintenance and taxes on the huge house is a cruel trap. In later life it is easier to see it. The government regards this lifestyle as a black market economy because they cannot collect tax revenue on it. |
