10/31/2005, 7:51 pm
Taxes enable all life to exist; their positive values are almost too numerous to list.
A) Taxes provide a stream of income to the government.
B) Taxes are a social leveler that bring the rich down to size.
C) They pay for essential services like housing, transportation, education, police, fire, sanitation, water, student loans, university grants, civil servant salaries, Medicaide, Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, school lunches, the Department of Energy, The Department of Interior, The Department of Treasury, The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, The Department of Agriculture, The Office of Thrift Supervision, The Vietnam Educational Foundation, The National Indian Gaming Commission, The Administration on Aging, The Appalachian Regional Commission, The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, The Interagency Council on Homelessness, The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, The Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds, The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, The National Agricultural Statistics Service, The Postal Rate Commission, The Veterans Day National Committee, The Rural Housing Service, The Disability Employment Policy Office, The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, The White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, farm subsidies, payments to grow food, payments to not grow food, and so much much much much more. And that is not even including essential state and local services!
D) Taxes are a moral imperative
Taxes are best when they are egalitarian; i.e., everyone ends up with an equal income regardless of what they are initially paid. This is economically crucial because history has shown that people are happiest when they feel no envy -- and the best tax is therefore one that leaves everyone with nothing. But obviously, this is not acceptable. For such a tax would leave no room for deductions; in order for people to pursue worthwhile activities, they must be able to deduct expenses from their taxes. Without such deductions, society would be left with nothing but greedy corporations and rich people thinking only of themselves -- no one would contribute a dime to charities, and no corporation would ever do anything beneficial.
Taxes also encourage hard work, and lots of it. For example, if 99% of your income is taxed, then you will work one-hundred times as hard to stay even with your pre-tax income. Theoretically, if 100% of your income is taxed, then you will need to put in an infinite amount of effort to stay even. But then, we run into the “deduction” issue again. Furthermore, this would be politically impractical, as conservative bigots would start screaming “slavery”.
A good government is one that controls everything, and taxes are the nourishment of the benevolent government. Taxes allow for public education, public hospitals, public transportation, public housing and all the other services that are “excellence certified” with the prefix “public”. (To say nothing of The White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance!) But quality is not cheap, which is why high taxes are essential. For these services require land, materials, and mostly, an army of selflessly dedicated civil servants who do indeed tirelessly work in the service of the citizenry.
Wouldn't it be ideal if all housing was like public housing? Well, that requires taxes. Wouldn't it be ideal if we were all served by a nationalized health-care system based on typical municipal hospitals? That's what taxes can do. Wouldn't you be happier if your local supermarket was operated on par with the Department of Motor Vehicles? Taxes!
And, in the process, taxes democratize society. Is it fair that someone working twice as hard as you makes twice as much as you? No, it isn't – and taxes can address that. Is it right that your neighbor can send his children to private school? No, it isn't. And if we tax him, we can then afford to build more public schools that his children will need to attend when he is no longer able to afford private schools. Do you have a private pension plan? No? Well, taxes give other people the opportunity to contribute to a Social Security system whether they want to or not. Perhaps they won't even have enough money left over for their so-called “private” pension!
The fact is that businesses also benefit by paying taxes. Remember, they also use the roads, and hire people educated in public schools and who live in public housing. Think about it this way: Were it not for public housing, then those businesses would not be able to hire public-housing tenants. And in any event, there is a moral imperative to punish businesses anyway – which taxes also address.
And there is a moral imperative for you, dear pupil, to pay your taxes. In a world of suffering, only a monster would claim a right to his income. There is no right to be happy – especially when others aren't. And if you are happy, then something is amiss. Fortunately, they IRS has trained people who will find that “something”.