It’s a fact that causes me some discomfort and even some embarrassment that I am one of those leaches that conservative ideologues rail against when they wax indignant about the tax code. Not five minutes ago I heard Sean Hannity of FOX news say incredulously, “48% of Americans don’t pay any federal income tax at all!” I am one of those. When filing our federal tax return this past spring, Sarah and I took advantage of the earned income credit as well as the additional child tax credit. Although I am ideologically opposed to the very existence of these credits, rational self-interest requires me to take advantage of them. They amounted to a significant windfall for us. To decline these credits would have amounted to fiscal martyrdom. If I could vote it away I would, but as long as I’m offered free money I have to admit I’ll continue to take it. I’m ideologically compromised on this issue.
Like most Americans I am concerned about our nation’s financial situation, and as I flick back and forth between MSNBC and FOX news I have noticed the not so subtle differences between the ways that liberals and conservatives frame the debate surrounding the national debt. Liberals speak of taxes in terms of fairness. Their narrative is that the proverbial little guy is playing against a stacked deck and needs help, protection and succor from the gubment. This help either takes the form a direct cash infusion (like the one Sarah and I received last spring) or government funded programs designed to help the lowest strata of our society (like Medi-Cal which pays for our kids’ health care). We are such leaches! The flip side of their narrative is that the wealthiest members of our society need to pay their “fair” share. There they go with fairness again. Liberals often portray wealth as vaguely ill-gotten and greedily accumulated on the backs of the aforementioned “little guys.” To them taxes seem primarily designed to right societal wrongs.
Conservatives frame the debate in terms of freedom and opportunity. Taxes, especially taxes that fund social/welfare programs, are viewed as parasitical insofar as they threaten to kill the host by crowding out private enterprise and sapping the national vigor. Get these onerous and burdensome taxes off the backs of “America’s job creator’s,” they reason, and the economy would roar back to life. Perhaps on a more philosophical level conservatives also view such taxes which fund the expansion of government as an insidious threat to personal liberty.
You long-time readers of the BFZ will not be surprised to learn that my sympathies lie with the conservative perspective. I don’t pretend to be a dispassionate third party. No, I am a guy with an opinion, and I write as such. The refund we received (refund being a complete misnomer in this scenario) could only be described as a pornographic sum of money. I can’t blame you tax payers for finding that outrageous and appalling! (…but can I be blamed for taking it?)
The truth is I want to pay taxes, I really do, and here’s why- Conventional wisdom says that Americans express ownership of the political process through the act of voting. I think though that it is the act of paying taxes, not voting, that gives individuals a sense of ownership and concern in national affairs. When I hear the astounding figure that 48% of Americans pay no federal income taxes I am always struck with the idea that 48% of Americans have no skin in the game. The current tax code can only breed a sense of entitlement, and a shabby view of the individual’s obligation to the rest of society. It is my opinion that everyone who makes money in America should pay something in federal income tax.
Even the poor? Yes, even the poor. Liberals will scream about the injustice of taxing the poor (remember it’s all about fairness for them), but through paying taxes I believe every citizen would experience a greater interest in national affairs, and also a greater sense of self-worth. It’s honest and good to be a contributor. It rots the soul of a free man to be subsidized his whole life. Any amount would do! For the lower income brackets taxes would be more of a nominal contribution. Perhaps taxes could even be waived for the poorest Americans if they served on a jury, served in the military, or did some other kind of civic service over the course of the year. It’s the point of the thing really! We should all be contributors.
When I traveled to Quebec to study French at the University of Laval’s immersion program I was warned by a Mexican gentleman named Guillermo, who was in the same program, not to partner with Canadians on any projects. “Pourquoi?” I remember asking. He spoke no English and I spoke no Spanish so we had no choice but to converse in broken French. The gist of his counsel, as conveyed in broken French, was that because the Canadian government was paying their way through the program the Canadian students were famously indifferent to the coursework and should be avoided as partners. In other words they had no skin in the game and, with nothing on the line, they had consequently become horrible students. The well-intentioned government subsidies for Canadian students led predictably to a cavalier and lazy attitude toward the program’s demands. In my experience, Guillermo was right. Foreign students like my friend Guillermo had paid their own way to Laval with hard-earned pesos and so they took a greater interest in getting everything they could from the experience. They were good students. It was a valuable lesson in economics for me. My point is this- The American public, or at least 48% of it, is beginning to resemble a great mob of Canadian students. Laissez les bon temps roulez!
Although issues of fairness, freedom, and opportunity are important and worthy of discussion, for me, the issue of paying taxes should be focused primarily on ownership of the society in which we live and being a contributor. I have no doubt that paying taxes would make 48% of us better citizens. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So true.
