Comments on: Taxes, Yes!

By: Coleen O'Connell

Coleen O'Connell — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:11:59 +0000

Thank you for sharing this. My thoughts exactly and I am tired of these folks that think we can run a great country, give our children a future, and survive well without taxes. I personally don’t mind paying them and we need to change the tide in the attitude toward them.

As to the voluntary tax idea – the invitation that we can all make voluntary taxes if we want. Well in trying it out with industry it doesn’t work. When the bottom line is how much profit you can make, there is no volunteering. It is clear that we have a profit loving populace and so I say we need to legislate some ethical morality. Too bad that we can’t grow up. Volunteerism doesn’t work – so we need to ask people to commit to their country and step up to the plate. Wasteful is a matter of opinion of course – and there isn’t any such thing as waste. Waste is just something else’s food. The question isn’t big government – it is efficient government… let’s focus on that instead of the band standing and greed feelings.

By: Ed W

Ed W — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:13:36 +0000

A really major difference is that with government you have no choice. If you don’t like the program, too bad. These things have the force of law and they can put you in jail if you don’t comply. Alternatively, if the service in question is offered in the free market you can chose to use it or not. If you don’t like supplier A, you can switch to another. This gives you freedom of choice and drives innovation and efficiency. Look at computers, then look at the post office. Can you imagine if the govenment had decided in 1950 that Univac should be nationalized and have exclusive rights to develop and sell computers?

By: Hekate

Hekate — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:34:31 +0000

Yes, Ed, government is often incredibly wasteful and even stifles creativity and initiative. So, of course, do corporations, churches, families and clubs. For every government horror story you can tell, I can match you with one from any of those other entities. When the cream rises to the top, in an organization or a bowl, it often curdles and gums up the works. The problem we confront is how to clean up the mess and get things working properly again. I tend to prefer government, imperfect though is be, to the uncontrolled rapacity of the most powerful 1% of the population.

BTW, I wonder if I could get a tank of gasoline with a voluntary contribution of my own choice.

By: Ed W

Ed W — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:24:36 +0000

I am sorry, but do not agree. Government is incredibly wasteful and its growth stifles creativity and initiative. Anyone (including you my beloved brother- and sister-in-law) can make voluntary contributions to the IRS (or state or local govt) if you are so inclined.

BTW, one tax I would be in favor of increasing is the estate tax. I see no reason why the children of great wealth should be entitled to a life of ease and leisure. A reasonable exemption and heavy taxation above that amount along with the closing of loopholes like generation-skipping trusts would be fair.

By: Sharri

Sharri — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:01:04 +0000

Great article and I agree one hundred and one percent. Or more. We have never objected to paying taxes and wonder why the big whine about taxes when we are the least taxed country in the Western world. I like my government to provide services and I don’t believe that private industry will step in and do many of the things you mentioned out the goodness of their hearts. There is a little of that, but not nearly enough and never will be because there is not enough money to be made in it.

By: Hekate

Hekate — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:04:58 +0000

What a wonderful piece! I am outraged and saddened and frustrated every day when some of my former co-workers (I’m retired) join forces with the elite to oppose taxes.

I was a public transit bus driver for 16 years. Public transit makes it possible for folks in low wage jobs to get to work, for school kids with 2 working parents to get to and from school and after school activities safely. Public transit takes poor folks and old folks and people with disabilities to doctor’s offices, hospitals, recreation and shopping. It also provides good wages and benefits to its employees–at least when those employees are represented by a union.

So poor folks and families with kids and old folks and people with disabilities and public transit employees–which is to say a sizable portion of our society–have a vested interest in maintaining the taxes that make good public transportation possible. Yet too many of these folks have been conned into believing that taxes are some kind of plot against their prosperity.

And people who use schools and health care and roadways and drinking water and electricity and air and almost any kind of food, et cetera–which is to say, all of us–have the same vested interest an appropriate, adequate and, above all, fair tax policy. Yet all too many of us are falling for this old con job. (Rupert Murdoch, a man with only a few billion dollars between himself and poverty, must be so proud.)

I say it’s time for all of us to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and start shooting holes in ridiculous ideas. Tax day is Independence Day to me. The taxes I pay are my dues for living in a just society. The taxes I pay are the privilege I have because I have access to enough money to owe them.