Tax Day, or The Day of Citizen Investment
(Today's sanctimonious lecture on government is brought to you by the letter P.)
It is once more that much bemoaned unholiday, April 15th. Last night, people all over America stayed up late, poring over the often arcane tax forms, cross-referencing between them, and digging through stacks of envelopes with forms about earned income, dividend income, and interest earnings. (It didn't all happen last night, of course; many people do put together their taxes weeks or months in advance - still, there's something to be said for noting the general ritual of Tax Day Eve.)
Today, the forms get turned in, along with the checks. Bank accounts across the country will soon get smaller, when a percentage from a carpenter in Des Moines gets added to a percentage from a director in LA and a percentage from a farmer in Texas and a percentage from a waitress in Florida and so on, and all of these percentages will get funneled to the federal government's massive budget, where even then they won't be enough to cover everything we're currently spending money on.
Notice that I said "we" in that last sentence. That was not an idle word choice. I always bite my tongue a little when I hear people around me talk about how the government is taking their money, and I bite a little harder when they use words like "stealing" or "robbing". I think it's important to remember that the government is not some amorphous outside identity, not some wholly external force of nature, not Greed Incarnate. No, government - and particularly the democratic republic of our United States - is constituted by the people, elected by the people, and ultimately held accountable by the people, both during regular elections and through direct citizen engagement with their elected representatives. Is it perfectly constituted? No. Our representative democracy is sadly unrepresentative of the full range of America when it comes to class, gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation, among others. However, government is not completely outside the citizenry - you had a chance to vote for your representative, for your president, for your senators, and for all these corresponding positions at the state level (and if you chose not to vote, you sacrifice legitimacy when complaining about government actions). You can write or e-mail your representative any time you wish, and if you're particularly passionate and have the means to do so, you can usually make an appointment to meet with them in person either at their governmental office or their constituency office (and this goes triple for state representatives - seriously, you should meet yours just because you can, and because they're often hugely dedicated to what they do, which is always positive and reassuring to see). The bottom line is this: the public (you) and the government are not separate and discrete entities, but rather a larger body that selects a smaller body to make decisions on behalf of the whole.
It's also worth reminding ourselves about the good things our taxes do buy. Speaking just for myself, I attend a public (i.e. government-funded) institution of higher education, having previously attended a public high school. Every time I drive to visit my girlfriend, I do so on roads built with government funds, and then spend time with her and her friends, nearly all of whom are attending other public institutions of higher education, and all of whom attended public schools when they were younger. Here at my university, I am kept safe by a publicly funded police force, and have on multiple occasions seen the publicly funded emergency medical response service help keep members of this community alive.
Are these services perfect? Absolutely not - there's a reason I'm joining Teach for America. Is the way we collect taxes perfect? I don't think so - not only are the forms labyrinthine, but taxes too often come with loopholes and exceptions that help people who ought to shoulder more pass the buck on down the income ladder. Is there waste in how our tax money is spent? Sure, though good luck finding agreement on any substantial program that can be universally agreed to be a waste. I'm not talking the much-decried earmarks that are in fact a small portion of our budget. I'm talking the serious draws on public money - Social Security, Medicare, the Department of Defense (two protracted wars don't come cheap). Grappling with these is usually more complex than we realize, and questions of what is ethically right quickly confound the "simple" question of what is economically efficient. And all of these questions, by the way, are areas where you as a member of the public can influence the representatives who serve you.
Does any of this make it any easier to write that check and see your bank account diminish? Maybe not. But it helps sometimes to step back from the immediate "Why do I have to do this?" to see the bigger picture at hand. This isn't a day when money vanishes into a black hole - this is a day when you get to invest in your fellow citizens, and they get to invest in you.
It is once more that much bemoaned unholiday, April 15th. Last night, people all over America stayed up late, poring over the often arcane tax forms, cross-referencing between them, and digging through stacks of envelopes with forms about earned income, dividend income, and interest earnings. (It didn't all happen last night, of course; many people do put together their taxes weeks or months in advance - still, there's something to be said for noting the general ritual of Tax Day Eve.)
Today, the forms get turned in, along with the checks. Bank accounts across the country will soon get smaller, when a percentage from a carpenter in Des Moines gets added to a percentage from a director in LA and a percentage from a farmer in Texas and a percentage from a waitress in Florida and so on, and all of these percentages will get funneled to the federal government's massive budget, where even then they won't be enough to cover everything we're currently spending money on.
Notice that I said "we" in that last sentence. That was not an idle word choice. I always bite my tongue a little when I hear people around me talk about how the government is taking their money, and I bite a little harder when they use words like "stealing" or "robbing". I think it's important to remember that the government is not some amorphous outside identity, not some wholly external force of nature, not Greed Incarnate. No, government - and particularly the democratic republic of our United States - is constituted by the people, elected by the people, and ultimately held accountable by the people, both during regular elections and through direct citizen engagement with their elected representatives. Is it perfectly constituted? No. Our representative democracy is sadly unrepresentative of the full range of America when it comes to class, gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation, among others. However, government is not completely outside the citizenry - you had a chance to vote for your representative, for your president, for your senators, and for all these corresponding positions at the state level (and if you chose not to vote, you sacrifice legitimacy when complaining about government actions). You can write or e-mail your representative any time you wish, and if you're particularly passionate and have the means to do so, you can usually make an appointment to meet with them in person either at their governmental office or their constituency office (and this goes triple for state representatives - seriously, you should meet yours just because you can, and because they're often hugely dedicated to what they do, which is always positive and reassuring to see). The bottom line is this: the public (you) and the government are not separate and discrete entities, but rather a larger body that selects a smaller body to make decisions on behalf of the whole.
It's also worth reminding ourselves about the good things our taxes do buy. Speaking just for myself, I attend a public (i.e. government-funded) institution of higher education, having previously attended a public high school. Every time I drive to visit my girlfriend, I do so on roads built with government funds, and then spend time with her and her friends, nearly all of whom are attending other public institutions of higher education, and all of whom attended public schools when they were younger. Here at my university, I am kept safe by a publicly funded police force, and have on multiple occasions seen the publicly funded emergency medical response service help keep members of this community alive.
Are these services perfect? Absolutely not - there's a reason I'm joining Teach for America. Is the way we collect taxes perfect? I don't think so - not only are the forms labyrinthine, but taxes too often come with loopholes and exceptions that help people who ought to shoulder more pass the buck on down the income ladder. Is there waste in how our tax money is spent? Sure, though good luck finding agreement on any substantial program that can be universally agreed to be a waste. I'm not talking the much-decried earmarks that are in fact a small portion of our budget. I'm talking the serious draws on public money - Social Security, Medicare, the Department of Defense (two protracted wars don't come cheap). Grappling with these is usually more complex than we realize, and questions of what is ethically right quickly confound the "simple" question of what is economically efficient. And all of these questions, by the way, are areas where you as a member of the public can influence the representatives who serve you.
Does any of this make it any easier to write that check and see your bank account diminish? Maybe not. But it helps sometimes to step back from the immediate "Why do I have to do this?" to see the bigger picture at hand. This isn't a day when money vanishes into a black hole - this is a day when you get to invest in your fellow citizens, and they get to invest in you.