Quick link to honestwagecalculator.com if you just want to use the calculator.
I’ve seen dozens of posts asking for shorter work weeks. It’s a common request. Could we move to a 4-day work week and have longer weekends?
It turns out, yes. In fact, the average worker in America could probably have a 2 1/2 day work week. Or at least, get paid double what they do right now if they chose to keep working 5 days a week.
Imagine having a weekend almost 5 days long, every week.
Imagine being able to see your kids more.
Imagine your wife finally being able to quit her job and stay home with the kids because you can provide for your family on one income.
Imagine being able to retire at age 50 because you were so productive.
How is this possible? What miracle cure am I selling you?
Abolish taxes and stop printing more dollars. That’s how.
It turns out, the government steals at least half of what you make, and much more if you’re making a good salary.
But it gets worse.
The government says inflation is at around 3% today. This is a lie. Independent statistics, like the Chapwood index, count inflation at around 11%.
Do you know what a compounding 11% rate of inflation does to your savings?
If you graduated college at 22 and saved $10,000 under the mattress until you retired at 65, your savings would be worth just $112.
$10,000 is enough to buy a decent used car. $112 is not enough to buy groceries.
That’s how much the government is going to steal from you over a lifetime of work.
If you’re lucky, the stock market, or whatever you invested in, gets 7% and you only suffer a real loss of 4% per year, compounded over 43 years. But the idea that your investments will consistently do better than the rate of inflation is unrealistic.
Years of Your Life Lost to Tax Slavery
If you believe the government’s 3% inflation rate (you shouldn’t), and you get about a 3% raise per year, you can keep pace with inflation (though not get paid more in real terms), and over a life of work end up spending about 18.5 years working for the government. Half your life.
But using the 11% rate from the Chapwood index that we all know is much closer to reality? It’s much more grim.
35.7 years worked for the government. Just 7.3 years worked for yourself.
Is it any mystery that it takes many families two working adults with full-time jobs just to make ends meet, and most people can’t afford to buy a home?
This is the brutal reality of living under a tyrannical regime that extracts most of your productivity - your literal life force - via taxes and inflation, and regulates years out of your life with an ever-growing roster of laws that are harder and harder to keep track of.
A person earning a decent $60,000 a year, is going to pay over $2.3 million in taxes over their lifetime. Imagine what the average person could do with that kind of money! If someone just handed you a check for $2.3 million dollars when you retired - you’d be rich. This is life-changing money we’re talking about, and it’s stolen and squandered by corrupt politicians, the military-industrial complex, banks, and corporate welfare.
The calculator I made lets you plug in all your own numbers. The inflation rate, your wage, savings rate, how much of a raise you anticipate every year, and much more.
All the data stays in your browser, so it’s all fully private.
Feel free to calculate your numbers here and share your results with your friends.
Until a critical mass of people realizes that we’re being stolen from by the organized criminal cartel called “government”, nothing will change.
Unfortunately, the average American couldn’t care less that innocent people in Iran are being bombed. But gas prices go up? Now they notice. Things hit home a lot harder when they affect your wallet and savings account.
If people really understood how much of their life was being stolen from them, I think the conversation would change.
Want to support my work? I’ve been busy building websites and tools to help people self-actualize. Most of them are free, some have paid features. From relocating to a freer state and county and researching hazards near your home, to planning your garden. Check out all The Liberty Lookout projects here.
