{"id":16060,"date":"2010-04-16T07:04:05","date_gmt":"2010-04-16T13:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=16060"},"modified":"2010-04-18T23:15:25","modified_gmt":"2010-04-19T05:15:25","slug":"without-taxes-america-would-be-a-third-world-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/04\/without-taxes-america-would-be-a-third-world-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Without taxes, America would be a Third World country"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Like our highways? They make modern commerce possible. We need taxes to pay for them. (http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/nicholas_t\/ \/ CC BY 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Each spring we all get to hear about something called \u201cTax Freedom Day.\u201d<\/a> This year it was April 9. Did you miss it? Probably not, because this faux holiday, created by the conservative think-tankers at the Tax Foundation<\/a>, is really just an exercise in the hypothetical.<\/p>\n

It works like this: Let\u2019s say that beginning on January 1 of every year, every penny of your paycheck went toward your annual share of taxes. TFD would be the day \u2013 it\u2019s in early April \u2013 that your annual tax bill would be paid off, meaning that every penny you earned after that for the rest of the year was yours to keep.<\/p>\n

Aside from the fact that the Tax Foundation\u2019s methodology is questionable \u2013 their federal tax rate estimates are skewed by high-income taxpayers and, therefore, do not represent average working Americans \u2013 their intent is dark and destructive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What the Tax Foundation number-crunchers really want to do is foster the \u201cus versus them\u201d mentality \u2013 the notion that the big, bad government (some amorphous collective \u201cout there\u201d somewhere) is hell-bent on taking your money. Nonsense.<\/p>\n

Democracy simply doesn\u2019t work like that. In a true democracy, we\u2019re all in this together.<\/p>\n

A new scenario<\/h3>\n

So let\u2019s turn the hypothetical on its ear and try a new scenario. Let\u2019s say that, beginning on January 1 every year, every day is \u201cPublic Structure Freedom Day.\u201d That means you are not allowed to take advantage of any of the public structures that are paid for with tax money.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t drive on city streets or interstate highways. Public schools, colleges and universities are closed. Every hospital or health clinic that receives tax money has to limit its patient load only to those who can pay up front. Grandma will have to put her hip replacement surgery on hold. The labs that do cutting-edge science and medical research are dark. So are most of the sports stadiums, performing arts centers, museums and zoos. The nest egg that you\u2019ve laid up in your local bank is no longer insured.<\/p>\n

Public Structure Freedom Days don\u2019t end until Tax Freedom Day \u2013 or the day when you\u2019ve paid your bill in full for the amenities you\u2019ve come to depend upon.<\/p>\n

Ridiculous, right? That\u2019s really no more ridiculous than the notion that paying taxes is a burden akin to being a post-Civil War era sharecropper \u2013 that is, you\u2019re not technically a slave, but you\u2019re far from being able to determine your own destiny.<\/p>\n

The free-market capitol because of our tax system<\/h3>\n

Some conservatives would have you believe that America is the free-market capitol of the world despite our tax system. But the truth is, America is the free-market capital of the world because of our tax system. Our modern economy is what it is because of the public structures we\u2019ve been building and maintaining for more than 200 years.<\/p>\n

All of our major industries \u2013 steel, oil, mining, lumber and the like \u2013 have benefitted either from government-financed technological advances, free or low-cost raw materials, or out-and-out subsidies.<\/p>\n

Our systems of highways, railroads and airports were all funded at least in part by our taxes. They make modern commerce possible. The development of the Internet, which has changed more than our economy, was also funded by our taxes.<\/p>\n

Without our regulatory agencies, our water and air would be at the mercy of industrial polluters. And it works both ways \u2013 those same companies would have no legal protection for their trade secrets or from personal liability for their actions.<\/p>\n

Without our public education system we would not have enough skilled workers to run our companies and industries. Without skilled workers we would also have few consumers, free market or not.<\/p>\n

Without taxes, we would have little infrastructure and a very small percentage of the population would be able to read and write. In other words, we would be a Third World country.<\/p>\n

Investing in public structures together<\/h3>\n

Despite our enduring mythology of Americans as \u201crugged individuals,\u201d this country was not built by individuals acting alone. Certainly, many very talented and enterprising individuals made significant contributions. But we built this great country together, and we did a lot of it by investing in public structures together.<\/p>\n

Taxes are not the penalty you pay for being an American. Taxes are the communal kitty that we all chip in to so we can accomplish great things as a nation.<\/p>\n

Sharon Kayne is the communications director for <\/em>New Mexico Voices for Children<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taxes are not the penalty you pay for being an American. Taxes are the communal kitty that we all chip in to so we can accomplish great things as a nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":740,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[118],"class_list":["post-16060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/740"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}