Some Thoughts on Taxes

Let me start by saying, I’m lucky to have a job.  I’m even more lucky to have a pretty good job.  That means I pay a fair amount of taxes.  And guess what?  I don’t mind it.

I think of it as my civic duty.  I know that is a quaint concept in today’s world, but I think we all have an obligation to contribute to the common good.  That’s  how I view paying taxes.

I like that I am helping to finance education, social security, medicare, libraries, the Arts, mass transit and our public infrastructure.

I wish more of my tax dollars went to these and similar areas of focus and less to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  I wish more of my contributions went to safer food and small, family organic farms and less to corporate food providers like Monsanto.  I wish more went to small businesses than to Halliburton and other “defense” contractors.

I wish more of my tax dollars built things and helped the poor and unfortunate and less went to provide tax breaks for the wealthy.

That’s why I get so mad at the Republicans who want to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, but don’t want to fund unemployment insurance.

It may be time for a little healthy class warfare.   Or at least a healthy discussion…

The rich have brought it on themselves.  And they control the resources to prevail in any battle.  As long as money drives our political system via campaign contributions, they still have the advantage.

But we can still vote and call our elected officials.  We can make it harder t0 vote against working people or people temporarily without work and for the non-working, idle rich.

For every Bill Gates or Warren Buffet who want to help people by sharing their wealth, we have a dozen Paris Hiltons.

It wasn’t always this way.  For example, Andrew Carnegie built Carnegie Hall and countless libraries.  Today, the highest income groups seem to contribute so little.  Wealthy people no longer even have a concept of noblesse oblige.  It’s about “me” and “mine”.

Since the Republicans like to cite scripture for everything, how about Luke 12:48,

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

This sounds like a biblical justification to let the Bush Tax Cuts, that only applied to the very Rich, expire and let the wealthier classes help us retire the deficit they all seem so concerned with and greatly contributed to…via their tax cuts.

If  I’m willing to do my little part, why can’t they?

Instead of focusing on gaming the tax system and extending the Republican philosophy of  “I got mine, screw you”, they need to be contributing to the common good.

It’s their civic responsibility.  And it’s time the Democrats called the Republicans out on this instead of running in fear of the label “class warfare.”

Except for George Bush, most of us know you only declare war as a last resort to protect our way of life.

When people are losing their unemployment benefits, our bridges and roads are collapsing, our internet service is among the world’s worst, kids can’t afford to go to school without amassing a crushing debt load, our energy policy and systems are outdated, mass transit is a joke and all sorts of other issues face us as American’s.  They should be forced to do their part.

Let the Bush Tax Cuts expire.

Paris Hilton and her friends will survive.  They might even be forced to get and create real jobs that contribute to our economy and improve our world.

So much of today’s money was made without creating anything of substance.  What good did hedge funds do for anyone besides the people who bought them and made money betting on other people’s failures?

Let’s get back to building things.  If it takes forcing the rich to pay their share, so be it.

If they had been really contributing all along, we wouldn’t be in this position today…

Read some of the other posts I’ve run from people far wiser than I…