A lot of people object to paying taxes. I think a lot of the resentment of taxes comes from the idea that I'm paying and someone else is benefiting. So I thought I'd look at how a typical resident of my state, Massachusetts, enjoys the benefits of taxes.
You wake up in the morning, feeling like P. Diddy. If the air in your town is not thick with industrial pollutants, you can thank the laws passed and enforced by government employees. Ditto with the water you drink. And you can eat breakfast with relative confidence that the food you're eating is safe to eat because laws and government employees make it so.
Is your aged parent at the breakfast table with you? If not, it's probably because Social Security has allowed them to retire without facing penury and having to move in with their children.
Let's go to work! If you commute via the MBTA, I-90, or Route 1, your commute is subsidized by tax money, and the money you pay every day doesn't even begin to cover the cost of operating your way in to work. If you commute on 93, 95, 128, or 495, your commute is even more heavily subsidized by tax money, since you're not even paying the nominal usage fees that other commuters pay.
Did you need a college degree to get your job? Then it's overwhelmingly likely that you benefited from tax money in the form of grants and loan guarantees. And even if you didn't, you paid lower tuition because of all the government money your university received.
Does your job involve a high risk of death every day? If not, you can thank safety regulations passed and enforce by government employees. If you can work without fear of being fired for your identity rather than your job performance, there are those government regulations again.
Hop back in your car, which you count on to be relatively safe because of government regulations. You know you can sue the auto companies if you do have a problem, but of course that court system is also funded by your tax dollars.
If it's getting late, thank your tax dollars for those streetlights. Don't forget to return that library book, purchased with your tax money for everyone to share. Are the streets of your town thick with criminals waiting to prey on you? If not, you can thank law enforcement and, more importantly, education provided by the government using your tax dollars. Perhaps once you're home, you'd like to surf the internet--created and subsidized by US tax money! Or perhaps you'd like to watch something other than hardcore pornography on television--you can thank the Federal Communications Commission for your freedom to do that.
You've worked hard all week--you deserve some fun! Perhaps you'd like to take in a sporting event, with extra traffic and security provided courtesy of your tax dollars! Or, you know, what, why not hop on a plane and fly to a more hospitable climate! Enjoy the security procedures that help keep your flight terror-free, the safety regulations that make your plane continue to work day after day, and the fact that you can take off and land at all without crashing into another plane, courtesy of the Federal Aviation Administration.
I haven't even touched the biggest use of your tax dollars, which is the United States military.
Just because someone isn't handing you a check every day doesn't mean you're not benefiting, both directly and indirectly, from the taxes you pay. A lot of people talk about freedom as something that would exist if we didn't have taxes. But most of the freedoms we enjoy in this country are made possible by the fact that we pay taxes. So quit complaining, pay your taxes, and enjoy your freedom.
