At our house over the past few weeks, it's been candy, candy and more candy after a few days of local church-sponsored Fall Festivals and trunk or treat events (or trick or treat – depending on where you live). Like most parents of young children across the country, my wife and I, along with our "University of Alabama squad" – including a 5-year old dressed as a cheerleader, a 4-year old suited up as the quarterback and a 1-year old decked out as Big AL (the university's elephant mascot), embarked on our annual Halloween candy extravaganza.
As expected, it was funny, memorable and filled with wonderful laughs and priceless pictures. As we arrived home laden with loot, each child was eating as much of their hard-earned stash as possible, which was bagged and stored and separated by each child's name so they could enjoy the fruits of their labor for some time to come.
At that point, I was reminded of a video I saw called, "Opinions of Kids on American Tax System at Halloween." The video is about the "redistribution" of candy – taking some from those who had amassed more and giving it to those who hadn't collected as much, so as to be "fair" to everyone. If you give it some thought, you can see it's an amazing representation of the economic and tax structure of America. For a moment, then, let's delve into the mindset of a kid dealing with the rationing of his or her candy.
It will always be about the amount! The more you make, the more they take. Our government's tax structure progressively takes larger amounts of cash from those making more, and then redistributes it through various social programs such as welfare, healthcare, food stamps, low-income housing, Social Security, etc.
In the video, it was pretty evident that kids got the big picture, so why is it that many adults don't? My personal opinion is that most Americans do get the big picture; but some choose to be on the receiving end instead of the paying end. No one likes paying taxes—including those citizens who receive rather than pay. Even the video displayed this concept. You'll notice that the kids getting the rationed candy didn't complain about getting more, but also didn't choose to give the candy back to the kids from whom it was taken.
