Over-taxed and under-paid

Okay, so we all know that when you leave the international scene you take a pay cut. When you teach in Korea at least, they pay for your housing (utilities are cheap and you pay those yourself), cell phones are inexpensive and you can nab a used car for about $400 (and the insurance is about $500 all year), the school also pays for you to come and go at least once a year, they pay some shipping costs and have all kinds of amenities you can use at the school (like the gym, the field, the swimming pool and so on). So I knew things would be different when I came to the US, I knew I'd be paying rent and I knew my utilities would more expensive. I knew my brand new car would cost me a little more and that the health care would suck in comparison (I don't mean the doctors, I mean the costs)... but I thought I was prepared. But I wasn't prepared to be taxed to death!! There are state taxes on everything (they make Canada look like a tax haven) and there is even a personal property tax on my vehicle. I just found out that I am going to have to pay $300+ by December in personal property taxes because I own a new car... never mind that I already paid sales tax on it... never mind that I have NEVER heard of being taxed on a car (okay, not true, in Korea they tax you on owning a car, but it amounts to about $120 a year total).... The actual yearly total for my car is over $500 but since I came halfway through the year I have to pay just $300... *sigh* and people wonder why people in the US aren't surviving this recession... all the money they earn goes to gas, taxes and the government... sad, so sad...