25. Goddess Bless Taxes
I love paying taxes. When I see my check and it has a whole bunch of money taken away for things like Social Security I grin like a fool and when I purchase something at the super market and the price jumps another 8% I just want to cheer. Okay, not really but in all honestly I do LOVE taxes and so should you.
How many times have you heard a college student complain about the money being taken out of their paycheck? I have heard it far more times than I can count and I have become increasingly willing to start slapping at each additional occurrence. I am forced to wonder if these people are stupid, naive or just plain greedy. Of course most likely it’s a combination of the three. Next time one of these cretins starts bitching ask them how much money they get back at the end of the year and then ask them how much they are getting in loans and grants to help pay for school and then ask them how important it is to have a police force or a fire department and then ask them how much they think it would have cost their family to send them to private school if their were no public schools for them to go to. If you add all that up I am almost certain they are coming out ahead.
Okay so some of those things are hard to put a price on, which is where the real problem comes in. People take for granted all the things that their taxes pay for and then refuse to see how great it is to pay taxes. Sure there are some things that your taxes go toward that you may not agree with, I don’t agree with bombing the shit out of the third world for example, but guess what… you have to take the good with the bad.
Here’s a little story from my past that demonstrates why taxes are good.
When I was a kid my sister, our friends and I would often want to leave church before our parents were ready to go. This would of course be after the service while they were gossiping about who stoned who or which parishioner had begun speaking in tongues or how many witches they had burned at the stake this week (okay not really, my church was actually fairly tame… very few witch burnings to speak of). At any rate we would leave before our parents were ready to drive us home and thus we had to walk. This wasn’t so bad since the walk was only about a half hour or so and on a nice day walking and talking with friends can be a good way to spend your free time.
Aside: OMG do I miss free time.
Many times our parents would give us a little bit of money so that we could stop at the convenience store that was on the root home and get some kind of snack. Usually they would give us a buck or two, which they figured, was enough for us to each get a candy bar and little more. However we were pretty smart kids so we discovered something really interesting (something that apparently most adults can’t even comprehend). What we discovered was that if we pooled our money we ended up having around 8 bucks and could use that money to buy a bag of chips AND a box of cookies AND maybe even something to drink. Heck of a lot better than just a single candy bar each don’t you think? Our parents objected to this as it tended to result in us eating a lot more junk food than they had planned but it works in my opinion as a perfect example of why taxes are good.
Individually, like my friends and I, the people of a country cannot afford to purchase certain things or will simply end up paying a lot more because they need to purchase those things in small amounts. However when the government takes that money, money that would need to be spent on these things anyway, and pools it they can get a heck of a lot more bang for their buck. Can you imagine how much you would have to pay for a private police force to protect your home? Or (here’s an image I love) imagine the fire department showing up to watch your house burn down because you are not paid up on your fire protection (they are there, of course, to make certain your blaze does not spread to your more financially sound neighbors).
There you have it. Taxes are a good thing. This doesn’t even get into how having a healthier, safer and more educated society has spill over effects that assist everyone but it could, because they do.
So the next time you hear someone who has obviously benefited from taxes (and really this is everyone) give them a good smack for me.
How many times have you heard a college student complain about the money being taken out of their paycheck? I have heard it far more times than I can count and I have become increasingly willing to start slapping at each additional occurrence. I am forced to wonder if these people are stupid, naive or just plain greedy. Of course most likely it’s a combination of the three. Next time one of these cretins starts bitching ask them how much money they get back at the end of the year and then ask them how much they are getting in loans and grants to help pay for school and then ask them how important it is to have a police force or a fire department and then ask them how much they think it would have cost their family to send them to private school if their were no public schools for them to go to. If you add all that up I am almost certain they are coming out ahead.
Okay so some of those things are hard to put a price on, which is where the real problem comes in. People take for granted all the things that their taxes pay for and then refuse to see how great it is to pay taxes. Sure there are some things that your taxes go toward that you may not agree with, I don’t agree with bombing the shit out of the third world for example, but guess what… you have to take the good with the bad.
Here’s a little story from my past that demonstrates why taxes are good.
When I was a kid my sister, our friends and I would often want to leave church before our parents were ready to go. This would of course be after the service while they were gossiping about who stoned who or which parishioner had begun speaking in tongues or how many witches they had burned at the stake this week (okay not really, my church was actually fairly tame… very few witch burnings to speak of). At any rate we would leave before our parents were ready to drive us home and thus we had to walk. This wasn’t so bad since the walk was only about a half hour or so and on a nice day walking and talking with friends can be a good way to spend your free time.
Aside: OMG do I miss free time.
Many times our parents would give us a little bit of money so that we could stop at the convenience store that was on the root home and get some kind of snack. Usually they would give us a buck or two, which they figured, was enough for us to each get a candy bar and little more. However we were pretty smart kids so we discovered something really interesting (something that apparently most adults can’t even comprehend). What we discovered was that if we pooled our money we ended up having around 8 bucks and could use that money to buy a bag of chips AND a box of cookies AND maybe even something to drink. Heck of a lot better than just a single candy bar each don’t you think? Our parents objected to this as it tended to result in us eating a lot more junk food than they had planned but it works in my opinion as a perfect example of why taxes are good.
Individually, like my friends and I, the people of a country cannot afford to purchase certain things or will simply end up paying a lot more because they need to purchase those things in small amounts. However when the government takes that money, money that would need to be spent on these things anyway, and pools it they can get a heck of a lot more bang for their buck. Can you imagine how much you would have to pay for a private police force to protect your home? Or (here’s an image I love) imagine the fire department showing up to watch your house burn down because you are not paid up on your fire protection (they are there, of course, to make certain your blaze does not spread to your more financially sound neighbors).
There you have it. Taxes are a good thing. This doesn’t even get into how having a healthier, safer and more educated society has spill over effects that assist everyone but it could, because they do.
So the next time you hear someone who has obviously benefited from taxes (and really this is everyone) give them a good smack for me.