Your Tax Dollars

YOUR TAX DOLLARS

While you are all so worried about what is being taken from you, I am here it remind you what has been given to you. Thanks to those brown people you hate so much. I am NOT the exception, I am merely an example of the millions of people from whom this country has thrived. From whom this country has been built on. So before you make your next post about how immigrants are taking something from you, think of me. 

Frankly, I don’t want to hear about the “what about” or that I am the exception. That is your naïve, delusional perspective that is simply un-American. I am NOT the exception, I AM the RESULT. You see me now as a formidable citizen, but would you have seen that in me when I was a little brown child? I would post a picture of myself back then but I do not have any. That is part of the history of people fleeing for their lives. We don’t get to have some of these luxuries, these privileges. My parents had to build from ground zero. 

I am here to SHOW you where YOUR TAX DOLLARS went. It was given to millions of people like myself. Though I came to the US in the 70’s, and through some research I discovered that it was not different then, than it is now. I came to this country while it was protesting MY immigration. Sadly, I did not have to research it to know. There has been enough hate, racism and bigotry directed AT me through the years not to just know.

Despite all of the protests, my family and I made it to the US. How did we get here? We were picked up by a van that was paid for by the YOUR TAX DOLLARS. Then we were flown to the US via US military planes paid for by the US government, ie. YOUR TAX DOLLARS. When we arrived on American soil we were housed, fed and given medical care along with 50K other refugees, paid for by YOUR TAX DOLLARS. Never were we asked to pay for the services that were provided. All of this happened even before the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act (1975) was passed for $405 million. (Equivalent to $2 billion in 2021.) 

What was the return on investment of YOUR TAX DOLLARS??? 

Lets think about that for a moment. Using simple math, $405 million was spent to rescue 50k people…that would be approximately $8k per person in tax dollars. I have been paying taxes since 1986. If my average salary was $35k a year, I would have paid $5k/year in federal income tax totaling $175,000. But that is JUST the beginning, let me mention, the taxes I have paid as a business, the state income taxes, the corporate taxes, the sales tax, and don’t forget the best one yet, Commercial Activity Tax (bet you don’t even know what that is.) I am sure my accountant would tell you that I am missing a few things and that my number is missing a zero or two because I am pretty sure that I paid far north of that in Unemployment alone. I would hope that my point has been made.

So STOP making your ignorant posts of bigotry and hate and think about the emotional damage that you are doing to people like me. Yes, this is personal, as it should be. It should be personal to you too. 

It is because of OUR TAX DOLLARS that your community is thriving.

It is because of OUR TAX DOLLARS that people have been able to collect unemployment during a pandemic. 

It is because of OUR TAX DOLLARS from which this country can grow. 

© 2019 Kieu Pham Gray. All rights reserved.