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Much as been made of the Biden remark that it is patriotic to pay taxes. If you have to speak before a group, and you want the majority of the room rooting for every word coming from your mouth, then one thing that is certain to get you cheers is to make anti-tax statements. Almost no one like taxation. Anti-tax sentiments played at least a part in the American Revolution.
America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation. ~Laurence J. Peter
I was raised by a house full of Republicans who had very negative views of taxation. My family felt that taxes took money from responsible people who work hard and made good choices and spent it on worthless stuff. My family members felt that taxation took the incentive to work and produce away from producing businessmen. Why make money if the government was just going to come in and take that money away.
In my family taxation was just a mild form of communism.
The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor. ~William Cobbett
Governor Palin mocked Senator Biden's statement that paying taxes was patriotic. Sara would have fit in well with the family that raised me. The opponents to taxation, and those who mock the Biden remark seem to feel taxation is not patriotic, it is justification for a new revolution.
If we don't seize on this revolutionary moment to rein in taxes and rein in entitlements, we could be looking at a government headed for financial oblivionand a populace that is so over-taxed and so desperate that we could be talking about real revolutions. ~ David Keating of the National Taxpayers Union
It is very true that when you keep your eye on the money being taken from you in taxes, you have to be thinking how much better off you would be if you could have kept that money. When you are having trouble paying the bills, or when you just can't afford to buy a boat, then looking at the taxes taken from you can really chap your butt.
It is to the point where I say the government can just keep my pay check, and let me keep the deductions. ~something a friend said to me
It isn't true that our deductions are greater than the income we are left with, but the sentiment is easy to understand. What might be some of the reasons we hate taxation?
1. The Them and US Mentality
We Americans tend to have a them and us mentality about taxes and the government. They (the government) have a callous disregard for us (meaning me, and you too, if you are in my family or someone I know and care about.)
I just read of a poll that said 28% of Americans agreed with the statement: "I don't like paying taxes because the government doesn't do anything for people like me."
2. Government Incompetence
There are more reasons to hate Washington than can be fit between the covers of three dozen books using single space 8 point type. We hear about $800 toilet seats and $90 hammers purchased by our government using our money and we get apoplectic. Waste, waste, and more waste just drives us crazy with a furious, consuming, cancerous rage.
We hear quotes that say something about how the government thinks it can spend your money better than you can spend it yourself, and we hit the table with a fist and bark, "Damn right!"
Then there is Reagan the most popular recent advocate for lower taxes, and smaller government.
"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." ~Ronald Reagan
3. Fear
We are just afraid that forces greater than ourselves will use guns and brawn and regulations and laws to oppress us, to rob us of our freedoms, and leave us in shackles enslaved to bureaucracy and government craziness.
Consider a serious quotation of fear:
A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away. ~Barry Goldwater
Consider a humorous quotation of fear:
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. ~Will Rogers
4. We Are Responsible and Don't Need to be Forced to be Responsible.
Government is an unnecessary evil. Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior, can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and helpfulness. ~Fred Woodworth
I wish this were true. I wish that we would not need Social Assistance Programs because the churches or other altruistic organizations were so big and active that the private sector was stepping in to look after the poor, the sick, and the ignorant. I wish we were so responsible that no one among us would commit a crime and therefore we would have no need for prisons, or cops.
It seems to me that the aversions and enmity almost universally directed toward taxation keeps us from asking the question: Are there any positives associated with taxation?
From the time they get up in the morning and flush the toilet, they are taxed. When they go get a coffee, they are taxed. When they get in their car, they are taxed. When they go to the gas station they are taxed. When they go to lunch, they are taxed. This goes on all day long. Tax. Tax. Tax. Tax. Tax. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor Schwarzenegger does not seem to think there are many positives associated with taxes.
Civilization Exists By Rules
I live in an apartment complex. There are well over a thousand of us crowded in together. It is my first time to live in an apartment. I have always had my own house, my own yard, and there were freedoms I had then that I don't have now.
For one thing: when I walk my dog I carry a plastic bag and pick up the poo, turn the bag inside out, tie it, and toss it in a receptacle designated for bags of puppy poo. I find the chore unpleasant. I would prefer to allow nature to take that poo in as nourishment for the earth. But there are over a thousand people crowded in here, and someone, walking in the dark, might step in a pile of poo, and slip and fall, and be hurt. In this apartment civilization, I have to give up my freedom to leave it where it lays and instead pick up that poop and put it in a safe place.
Without the rule of picking up the puppy poo we would soon have dog piles covering every square inch of the grassy areas in my apartment complex.
If we were all on our own, we could do our own thing, and be responsible only for ourselves, but we live together, and to make that living together function we have to establish rules and provide services to enable us to be a society.
Some stuff is so important that I feel it should be available to everyone, and if that requires taxation to provide those services then I support taxes.
"Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society." ~Franklin Delano Roosevelt
I want clean safe water flowing through the tap.
I want roads, traffic signs, and lights. I want the snow removed when that is needed. I want the bridges inspected and kept safe. I want the pot holes filled.
I want to be able to call for the police when needed. If my house is on fire I want some group properly equipped, and maned and trained to come and put the fires out and to rescue the victims. I want there to be laws that make rape, murder, child abuse, robbery, and fraud illegal. I want a legal system with qualified practitioners to determine guilt and to provide as much justice as possible. The needs of our society are many, and most of us want this stuff.
If someone breaks into my house, I don't want to have to rely on myself only to defend myself from violence or property loss. I don't want to have to track down the perpetrators and to take Justice into my own hands. I'm not really capable of doing such things. Without taxes I would just be a victim with no redress within my reach.
I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr
As long as we see themselves only as taxpayers and not beneficiaries, as long as we ignore the connection between our taxes and what they get back from government, we will continue to be anti-tax people that feel a small weak government that provides few services is better than one that provides many services.
Part of the trouble might be that we do not get enough services for our tax dollars. Perhaps we would be willing to pay taxes, even higher taxes, if the benefits we got from our tax dollars were "worth it."
I remember watching an interview on TV with some American journalist T.R. Reid was going to Europe to be a foreign correspondent. He took his family and while in England his wife was shocked by the 17.5% tax that was added to virtually every purchase they made. Why would these English folk put up with such high sales tax?
The next morning, when they woke up and his daughter had purchased a cheap pair of earring's, and one of her ears was horribly infected. The ear was swollen and clearly in need of emergency medical attention. The hotel directed them to a local ER and the ear was drained and medication was given. Mr. Reid took out his checkbook and was told that there would be no charge for the treatment. "Now I see why the Brits put up with such high taxes," his wife said.
Perhaps our objection to taxes is that we get so few direct, clear benefits from the taxes we paid. If we had that connection of taxes with benefits, perhaps we would not object so much to taxes, even higher taxes.
tex norman is 58 years old, married 36 years, and his son Ryan, is currently working to earn his PHD at Princeton University. Mr. Norman has said, "My greatest pride and my greatest love is for my son, Ryan Norman." Mr. norman is a serious though little known artist, poet, and blogger. He has a novel, The Wewoka Switch, and a book of poetry, Portait of a Poet as a Wild Hare both available on Amazon and other online book sellers. He also has a play, and some religious themed works avaiable at a publish on demand company: http://www.lulu.com/texnorman tex norman's blog can be found at: http://thegentlejourney.blogspot.com/
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This is a very excellently written and well thought out article.
I am truly grateful for what taxation does provides and I am aware of the necessity of it. However, we could afford health care premiums if so much income tax were not taken out. I am 9 years away from getting Social Security money and qualifying for Medicare and my husband is 10 years away. We hope our health holds until then. It scares me sometimes.
Also, I am not sure that we could afford more taxation, even if it provided help with health care. We live well enough because we are very careful to live small, but we are among the poor of this nation according to the statistics on earnings.
I do wish our tax dollars were spent more thoughtfully. I shop around for the best bargains...why shouldn't the government do that? Instead of lining some special interest's pockets.
Dear Dianne: I agree with you completely that the Government should be careful with the people's money. There is waste and that is undeniable. I am 58 years old so I am getting closer to retirement and Medicare. I just moved to Oklahoma City, quitting my job there, so I could come to Oklahoma and help out with aging relatives. The third day we were here we were in a terrible car crash and I have had to put off looking for work to care for my wife who was injured worse then I was, and couldn't get tot he bathroom, or in and out of bed without help. We'd sold a house, selling it for less than it was worth (I thought) and we are almost out of that money. I have not been wise with money so I have no retirement saved up, and I am looking desperately for work that has insurance. Our COBRA is $1000 a month.
If there were no taxes I don't think I would be able to buy insurance, even then. For one thing my wife and I have a number of pre-existing conditions. Without a government we would have no regulatory restraints on Insurance companies.
I am worried about my foolish poor decisions, and the state of the economy. I'm not eligible for unemployment because I quit to move to another state.
I wish you luck, Dianne. I personally believe that Government has a role in caring for the people. The revenue pie our Government has now is probably big enough without a lot of new taxes, IF we cut the sizes properly. The billions we spend in a war that was justified for weapons of mass destruction. The waste can be reduced if the leaders wanted to curb the waste. I wish there was National Health Care. Medicare is actually a limited for of that for those who meet their criteria and most people who retire look forward to using Medicare. That movie Sicko gave me a lot of insight into the national health care in other countries.
I am hoping to get another job doing what I had been doing in Florida, providing care and services to families where abuse of children has been established by the courts. Most of those cases were not physical abuse, but some form of neglect. Most of that neglect was from poverty. I guess seeing the need and the suffering first hand makes me more of an advocate for Government to reach out and care for those who are in trouble. These people have not fallen through the cracks, they have fallen through fingers. We the people allow the weak, the disabled, the disenfranchised, and the unlucky to get into deeper and deeper trouble.
These people go to the ER and the premiums for the rest of us go up, or stay high.
I’m not smart enough to redress all the flaws and wrongs of our country. I’m not smart enough to redress any of the flaws and wrongs of our country. I’m just thinking with my keyboard.
Right now I’m thinking about the allegations against Obama and Democrats that they want to redistribute the wealth. I’ll probably be writing something about that as soon as I figure out what I think about it.
Thanks for your comment. I wish you and your husband the very best, especially that you stay healthy. Peace be with you.
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