"You didn't build that road - but you used it to build your successful business."
forgive me if my thoughts are a bit disjointed, but I want to get them out for discussion.
everyone who uses the roads pays for them, correct? By the gallon in fuel tax (in theory, that is the purpose of fuel tax). So if I only use the roads to get to my 9-5, I am paying for that much of the use of the roads. But if I use the roads to bring in merchandise to stock my store, I am paying the shipping/trucking company to buy the gas, and pay the tax on the roads. Meaning, again, I pay for my use of the roads. Why, if I have built up a business using the roads that I pay for, do I have to pay more for what anyone COULD do if they had the drive to do so?
The opportunity is there if you want to build a business. The road is available for your use, you pay for your use of it. If I want to work a 9-5, and not be responsible for the livelihood of other people, I can do that; and have off the normal holidays and be quite content with my life.
But if I have a vision of building something other people want, and I spend all my holidays working and taking family time when I can get, usually in a work-related area. And I have taken on the responsibility of employing other people and providing for other families, why can I not decide how I want to spend the results of that sacrifice? I have already paid for my use of the roads. Why do I have to pay more for my -and my family's - sacrifices?
To me it is like my family giving up vacations and cruises and fancy expensive electronics and new cars that all the people around here spend money on, so that we can get out of debt. Then have the people who spent money on all that complain that they will never be rich and the government should forgive their student loans and mortgages. There are sacrifices to be made and a cost-benefit ratio that needs to be taken into account.
Last year, we made the conscious decision to take everything we had in our savings account - our rainy day fund, our 1-year of expenses saved - to do something for one son who needed intervention desperately. We paid for him to go to the Anasazi Foundation
https://www.anasazi.org/ knowing that the insurance would probably NOT pay for it since he had not YET done anything that would be considered damaged. I am supposed to wait until he gets into drugs or attempts suicide before he is considered "at risk." I wasn't going to wait that long. We weighed the options and decided that what else did we have the money for if not for the well-being of our children. We could have paid off our house earlier, gone to Hawaii with ALL the kids, bought a new vehicle, but our choice was to help the one. Our cost-benefit analysis came off as it was better for this one to have the money than the family.
If you have built a business, and are successful, give back. Absolutely. But do it on your terms not someone else's. I refuse to give money to the American Red Cross. Does that mean I am a stingy b-- without a heart? No. I give in other ways to other organizations I like better, with better management of funds. I definitely do not want to give my charitable contributions to the US .gov to give to those who need it; they have a worse track record than ARC.
And don't make me contribute to .gov at the point of a gun. Cuz that takes you into the realm of slavery.