That Dirty Word
In the last several years, the very word "taxes" has become synonymous with being a dirty word. While I understand the idea that everyone would like to keep all the money one earns, do people not understand that taxes are a way to pay for services received?
Our federal taxes are a way of paying for the following services:
defense (21%),
education (2%),
financial assistance (21% social security and 11% other financial aid),
health care (20% for Medicare, help for the disabled and those who cannot afford care),
transportation (2 to 3 percent a year to establish and maintain airports, pipelines (oil, gas, etc.), roadways, railroads, waterways, and other similar forms of transportation.)
Now personally, I see nothing here that I would wish to be without. I do not want to live in a country that does not defend itself, educate its people, help the elderly, disabled, and downtrodden, and I surely do not wish live where there are no roads on which to travel. It is true, like in any large organization, there is bound to be waste. But why does the American populace think that the government is any worse at it than the private sector.
We've all heard of the tremendous waste of the private companies that were hired to provide services in Iraq.
School districts that have hired private companies to run their schools have failed miserably.
Medicare runs much cheaper than private health insurance. In a review of studies on the subject, the average administrative and other non-health care charges for Medicare is 4% while the average for the same charges in the private sector is over 14% with BCBS of California running at 20%.
And who hasn't complained about the cost of toll roads.
It is as if the American public has decided we should receive these services for free. Would we expect services we get from the private sector to be free? How about expecting that we would receive free haircuts, or no charge from retailers or restauranteers for their service people.
My only answer to this is that with the private sector, one gets to choose what services we pay for. But in a democracy we must submerge our own personal wants to that of the majority. There are things that taxes pay for that I do not support or at least in the amount that our taxes go for. But I am part of the greater good and therefore must cooperate with the whole. Yes, I can try to sway the way my taxes are spent by my voting for like minded candidates, but to think I shouldn't have to pay taxes is insane.
I find it interesting that the very people who complain the most about taxes often consider themselves Christian. They wish to cut taxes for programs that aid the poor and downtrodden yet it is their Savior that supposedly taught them to share with the less fortunate through the parable of sharing fishes and loaves of bread.
So the word "taxes" should be rescued from the dirty word pile. How to fairly and adequately distribute those taxes is the quandry. Now that is A Rather Knotty Problem.
Our federal taxes are a way of paying for the following services:
defense (21%),
education (2%),
financial assistance (21% social security and 11% other financial aid),
health care (20% for Medicare, help for the disabled and those who cannot afford care),
transportation (2 to 3 percent a year to establish and maintain airports, pipelines (oil, gas, etc.), roadways, railroads, waterways, and other similar forms of transportation.)
Now personally, I see nothing here that I would wish to be without. I do not want to live in a country that does not defend itself, educate its people, help the elderly, disabled, and downtrodden, and I surely do not wish live where there are no roads on which to travel. It is true, like in any large organization, there is bound to be waste. But why does the American populace think that the government is any worse at it than the private sector.
We've all heard of the tremendous waste of the private companies that were hired to provide services in Iraq.
School districts that have hired private companies to run their schools have failed miserably.
Medicare runs much cheaper than private health insurance. In a review of studies on the subject, the average administrative and other non-health care charges for Medicare is 4% while the average for the same charges in the private sector is over 14% with BCBS of California running at 20%.
And who hasn't complained about the cost of toll roads.
It is as if the American public has decided we should receive these services for free. Would we expect services we get from the private sector to be free? How about expecting that we would receive free haircuts, or no charge from retailers or restauranteers for their service people.
My only answer to this is that with the private sector, one gets to choose what services we pay for. But in a democracy we must submerge our own personal wants to that of the majority. There are things that taxes pay for that I do not support or at least in the amount that our taxes go for. But I am part of the greater good and therefore must cooperate with the whole. Yes, I can try to sway the way my taxes are spent by my voting for like minded candidates, but to think I shouldn't have to pay taxes is insane.
I find it interesting that the very people who complain the most about taxes often consider themselves Christian. They wish to cut taxes for programs that aid the poor and downtrodden yet it is their Savior that supposedly taught them to share with the less fortunate through the parable of sharing fishes and loaves of bread.
So the word "taxes" should be rescued from the dirty word pile. How to fairly and adequately distribute those taxes is the quandry. Now that is A Rather Knotty Problem.