Taxes and Democracy

The Tea Party movement is predicated on the premise that, as their name indicates (Taxed Enough Already) the level of taxation in 2010 America is onerous and a major cause of our current economic woes.

They seem to forget that taxes were much higher even under the Reagan administration, and that during America's Golden Age (the 50s and 60s) taxes were much, much higher.

But beyond that, I wanted to explore the very idea of taxation.  To this end I quote a comment from my friend Ken Christian, which is the best explanation on this topic I have come across:

""Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society." — Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes


Long ago, we accepted that education was not only to be paid for by all, but was mandatory; part of being an advanced, civilized society. Why are we so unwilling to accept that basic health care is also a fundamental part of a civilized society?

Food, clothing, and shelter are fully as much a part of civilized society (and even more basic, obviously) as police protection, national defense, fire protection, maintenance of roads, and all the other elements of life that we take for granted. They aren't politicized so much these days, but healthcare is, mostly because we realized that it had become so expensive, and thereby delivered in such an inequitable way. And for some, that seems to be the rub: they just don't want to admit that some things - the really big, really important (and yes, really expensive) things - will only be done by government, with its capabilities for collecting and dispensing funds. If they don't do it, who will? Wal-Mart? Lockheed? Microsoft? Good luck with that.

In terms of how government manages and monitors the big, important endeavors...well, the politicians have done us all a disservice by wasting our tax dollars, dispensing them as pork-barrel projects in return for campaign donations, and making other nefarious use of the money. Not surprisingly, people have loudly protested, and tax cutting became "the new black".

Just because taxes are lowered, however, does not mean that the remaining tax dollars are being used judiciously. And just because a lot of tax money has been wasted does not mean that the need for public, tax-funded endeavors has disappeared. On the contrary, we need them now more than ever, and folks, it's up to us to be sure that those things are discussed, funded, and managed correctly. Blindly voting for tax cuts and then declaring a victory accomplishes nothing. Nor is anything accomplished by ignoring how tax dollars are used.

(For others - primarily those who still long for the Gilded Age - it's just simple greed. They've got their money, they want to keep it, and society be damned. They will always be with us.)

You can't hold a bake sale every time society needs something. So our conversation needs to change. We must decide, with a simple majority, what the priorities are; and then levy taxes to pay for those priorities. You can't hold a bake sale every time society needs something.

So I'm all for public-funded health care. It's our money, and our children's money, and we need to make sure it's used correctly. But if we want civilization, we all must pitch in. Think about this when you're doing your tax return. And hold your government accountable for it.

Ken Christian - September 23 at 12:50pm"

Neutered

A thought has been bothering me lately.  It is, why are we, as a nation, taking the abuse we're taking from the moneyed elites.  I think I got it...

For this, let's pretend we're in high school. I'm a guy so this will be from a guy's point of view; obviously, if you're a girl, change the narrative as appropriate.

So we're in high school. There's a guy who's tall, charming, good-looking, athletic, captain of the b-ball team, has a cool ride... he's got every advantage and we would expect that this guy would get the prettiest, smartest girl in the school, right?  Sure, it's the natural order of things.

But not satisfied with that, this guy is going after every girl... *your* girl.  What would you do?

Probably grab a couple of your friends and go have a talk with Mr. Charming and set him straight?

Of course!

But that's not what's happening - Mr. Charming is not only getting our girl, he's got us saying "well, I guess he deserves her"... he's got us helping him get the other guys' girls!  And that is not right.

I don't understand why we're all not beating the living daylights out of this worthy... we've been neutered. We've been conditioned to accept that whatever Mr. Charming does is the right thing, even when it's clearly against our interest.  We are not American MEN anymore... I can't imagine those WWII vets putting up with anything like this.

When I started writing this, I thought about making Mr. Charming a big bully forcing his way... but that lacks nuance, and is not appropriately descriptive of what's going on.

The point is, just because one can do something, it doesn't mean one should.  And one guy taking every girl in the school is a surefire way to trouble. As those WWII vets knew, so it didn't happen on their watch. We are falling way short of their standard.

I, for one, am fighting...

Why Vote?

A couple of recent posts by friends of mine got me thinking about this. In their posts, my friends expressed frustration with the level of noise (to put it politely) currently seen in political advertising.

So Why Vote?

Politics is fundamentally about how the pie gets divided and allocated, the pie being our resources. And, you've already paid to participate; you don't pre-pay at an expensive restaurant and then walk out, right?

So how do you make a choice?  Like a lot of things in life, it boils down to research, your intuition...

Say you're considering a weight-loss system and you see an ad promising "take this pill once a day, you'll look like a model! You don't have to exercise or give up your double-cheeseburgers!!", well... you'd say "yeah, right..."

Or when buying a car, you don't just rely on the salesman's representations -- you go online, you do the research, you ask your trusted friends, you do the test drive.

Same with politics... there is such a thing as objective truth, so claims can be objectively evaluated. If a politician is not talking, in some way, about the allocation of the pie, then you know they're throwing a smoke-screen at you. If they're promising to put a man on Mars for a million bucks... yeah, right. Figuratively speaking; you know what I mean.

So please vote; and remember... politics is fundamentally about deciding how our resources are used now and in the future. About what kind of place do you want to live in, do you want your children to live in. And this decision-making is something you do in your own home every single day.

Co-opting The Middle Class

I've been wondering about something recently...

Why is it that so many people are in favor of fiscal policies that disproportionately benefit the ultra-wealthy, to the extent that some of those policies are even harmful to these same people?

This article provided me with a few clues
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/business/30rich.html

So, in the name of simplification of the tax code (and is there a living soul who does not dread the 1040?!), we have eliminated the distinction between a family making $250,000/yr and one making $25,000,000!

$250,000 is a nice amount of money, but in certain parts of the country (the coasts, for example) an income in that range does not make you rich. Heck, faced with $500,000+ mortgages for your basic 3-bedroom home, that income buys you a middle-class life.  Families in this range are likely to be small-business owners, or professionals (think doctors and such)... that is, people who work, hard, for a living. People who are successful through their own efforts. People who are creating jobs and opportunities for other Americans.

So it's perfectly understandable that when the talk turns to "raising the taxes on the rich", families in that range raise a howl.  It does affect them. And hard-working people should be rewarded, not punished.

The solution, as suggested in the article, is quite simple: allow the tax code to differentiate better between these hard-working people and the idle ultra-rich by creating more tax brackets at the upper end.

Done and done.