Tax wisdom from Jill Lapore in her November 26, 2012 piece, "Tax Time", The New Yorker.
Taxes are what we pay for civilized society, for modernity, and for prosperity. The wealthy pay more because they have benefitted more. Taxes, well laid and well spent, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and promote the general welfare.
Taxes protect property and the environment; taxes make business possible. Taxes pay for roads and schools and bridges and police and teachers. Taxes pay for doctors and nursing homes and medicine.
During an emergency, like an earthquake or a hurricane, taxes pay for rescue workers, shelters, and services. For people whose lives are devastated by other kinds of disaster, like the disaster of poverty, taxes pay, even, for food.
Simple truths. I just wish politicans, especially of the Republican variety, would take them to heart.
Those who argue that ALL taxes should be eliminated are a very small minority. Most people accept that taxes are necessary and maybe even good.
However, increasing taxes in an attempt to fund profligate and wasteful spending is unfair, immoral and just plain stupid. We don't have a revenue problem...we have a spending problem.
There are 66 million people receiving some kind of government assistance: welfare, medicaid, Section 8 housing, food stamps, various subsidies, etc. There are 21 million government employees. That is a total of 87 million people receiving taxpayer money. You have 109 million people working in the private sector paying those taxes.
So, here is the problem: You have 109 million people paying for 87 million people and the 87 million is growing every day.
This is unsustainable.
Posted by: tucson | December 08, 2012 at 12:06 PM
Another entry for the Hyper-Bowl. A significant portion of that number are retirees and every one of the employed is paying taxes, so the 87 vs. 109 number is just plain wrong. Tea Partiers, the acolytes of Grover Norquist, and many of the ultra-wealthy either want to drown government in a bathtub or don't think they need it. The obvious targets like welfare really only account for a small portion of the overall expenditures.
The rational way to determine taxes has nothing to do with the taxes themselves - figure out what we collectively want as a society/civilization and then fund it proportionately. This country does quite well, way better than most, and can afford to support itself.
Posted by: Ritz | December 08, 2012 at 05:30 PM
There was a time when people were ashamed to get assistance. Now they are proud of it. They have successfully "gamed" the system and see nothing wrong with that. Values have changed and society has changed.
The problem is not government and taxes. The problem is mismanagement of government and taxes. I object when politicians ask for more money when so much is wasted.
Posted by: tucson | December 08, 2012 at 07:10 PM
by the way..
Re: "During an emergency, like an earthquake or a hurricane, taxes pay for rescue workers, shelters, and services. For people whose lives are devastated by other kinds of disaster, like the disaster of poverty, taxes pay, even, for food."
--Taxes did a great job during the Hurricane Katrina and Sandy disasters, right?
Posted by: tucson | December 09, 2012 at 08:47 AM
tucson, yes, I agree: taxes did do a great job in the Sandy disaster, as Republican Governor Chris Christy and other leaders in the area said. But that's because we had a competent president, Obama, in charge rather than incompetent "You're doing a great job, Brownie" George Bush.
Have you noticed that Christy is asking for $30-$50 billion in tax money for New Jersey for disaster relief? Kind of astoundingly hypocritical, since he refuses to pay a few million dollars to set up an insurance exchange to help people faced with personal disasters caused by lack of health insurance.
Republicans love taxes when it suits them -- like tax subsidies for large corporations. But when taxes benefit ordinary people, socialism!
Posted by: Brian Hines | December 09, 2012 at 09:19 AM
Tax subsidies are wrong in regard to corporations. They shouldn't get them. It creates economic distortions and imbalances that are hard to correct. I think this is one of the problems with the corrupt lobby system in Washington.
However, I didn't hear progressives complain about Obama when he bailed out the auto industry which was basically a subsidy of a large corporation.
Nothing wrong with having a well-managed-in-the-black safety net for those who have fallen on hard times. The operative words are: well-managed, in the black. No need to have granny dying, cold and hungry in the street in this country unless she wants to be. But the system has to be tweaked so that it can't be as easily gamed by freeloaders.
Christy is a hypocrite as are many, if not most politicians. It's a job pre-requisite in our current system. FEMA did a very poor job in many areas hit by the disaster and people were left without help or resources for long periods of time. All Obama did was show up and walk around with Christie kissing his rump. Heroic men. What a great man that Obama is. A hero. He showed up. And re-elect him they did. It was indeed the perfect storm.
Posted by: tucson | December 09, 2012 at 06:48 PM