Our Patriotic Tax Investments Created Our Greatest American Century

Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have very unamerican tax avoidance scheme propositions for America’s tipped workers. Why do they think not paying taxes on tipped income is somehow desirable? I understand why DJT would champion something like that–its pandering to service workers in the swing state of Nevada. It’s small potatoes because most of these workers end up getting refunded any taxes they pay every tax day.

No taxing tips is immoral. Taxes are the investments we make to build America forward for the next generation. Our parents paid their taxes for us, so we could benefit from new roads, schools, high speed internet connections, vaccines, medicines, and everything else that makes America an exceptional country. Every worker, including tipped employees, should have the opportunity to be a part of building America. Depriving them of this sacred duty of asked of all citizens takes away an important stake in our country.

Conservative framing of taxes is harmful

We need to get away from talking about “tax burdens,” “tax relief,” and other conservative framings of taxes. Without taxes, we can’t dream big. Everything from the Eisenhower Interstate System and mass polio vaccinations to 5G tower deployment and high speed internet access for all Americans could not have happened without our collective investment. Kamala Harris should be talking about taxes this way. She should also be advocating for tipped employees in a fair and moral way.
We must abolish the tipped minimum wage, a special segregated wage that allows employers to pay their employers to pay a poverty wage of $2.13 an hour for their labor. Not only must these employees be guaranteed at least the same minimum wage, but the federal minimum wage needs to be increased. Anyone who works a 40 hour week should have an income high enough that they are contributing to making America stronger. They shouldn’t be forced to ask for handouts, and businesses have no business passing along their operating costs to tip surcharges, and wages so low that their workers qualify for welfare.

Big Box Stores passing along employee costs to taxpayers

Think about it–even if you never step foot into a restaurant like McDonald’s, you’re subsidizing a Fortune 500 company, if their employees qualify for food stamps and medicaid. Even if you never shop in a big box store, you’re still paying their employees while these companies are paying dividends to their stockholders. Fair wages doesn’t just benefit workers–it benefits consumers. We should have the right to see the actual cost of the burger we order. Instead, we have this convoluted system where we pay for the burger, we then pay a tax on the burger, we pay an 18% surcharge in the form of a tip, and then we pay a federal tax at the end of the year to support these businesses’ failed business model of passing along the hidden cost to you.

Workers create profits–not businesses

Workers are profit creators. Consumers are job creators. Big businesses cannot operate without the workers that generate the profit, and I’ve never heard of a single billionaire who created a single job that wasn’t in response to consumer demand. Without the consumers, there would be no jobs. It’s time we reward the real profit and job creators that build America forward.