If you want it, you have to pay for it, and that means higher taxes.

Over the past few months we’ve been reading about protests against steep tuition hikes for state universities by students, teachers and other citizens of the sovereign state of California, home of sunshine, freeways and the world’s sixth largest economy.  In another part of the world, many Pennsylvania drivers are up in arms that the state wants to make I-80 a toll road to help pay for keeping state roads in repair and mass transit improvements.

Today brings more of the same in two strangely similar news reports: One that Arizonans are furious that the state highway department closed all the freeway rest stops.  The second reports of the fear and concern of people and law enforcement groups in California, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon and elsewhere that state prisons are releasing prisoners to cut costs.

What did people expect when governments keeps taxes lower than they should be?  You wonder why tuition is going up, prisoners are getting out early and rest stops are shuttering their WC.  You wonder why so many of your roads and bridges are in disrepair.  You wonder why so many public schools can’t afford new books and computers for their kids.

You can’t provide the service if you don’t have the money.

“Starving the beast” is what many right-wingers call it.  Since the passage of California Proposition 13 in 1978 and the ascent of Reagan in 1981, politicians and legislatures have put local, state and federal revenues on a starvation diet that has led to an erosion of basic services.  The frequent cutting of taxes, particularly for the well-to-do, has emptied the coffers everywhere at the moment when we need public spending more than ever.  Besides helping the victims of the recession ward off starvation and homelessness, we also face the challenge of rebuilding our sewer, road, school and other public infrastructure and we’re in debt.  And yet many politicians and much of the populace call for cutting taxes even more.

Besides not taxing us enough, government has made two grievous errors:

  • On the federal level, burning trillions of dollars and counting on two senseless and unwinnable wars. 
  • On both the state and federal levels, letting special interests dictate how industrial policy is implemented.  For example, in the Bush administration, the lion’s share of money for alternative energy technologies went to corn biomass conversion, which uses more energy than it creates.  We’ve seen how the gun manufacturers’ lobby has enticed legislators to erode the safety of Americans everywhere.  It seems as if behind every law is a company or industry that campaigned for its passage and will benefit from the way the law is written.

Contrast the United States with Western Europe, which has much steeper taxes than we do, but provides a full range of social services to its citizens — health care, education, retirement all at a high level of quality.  The freeway roads are in fine shape, at least in the five western European countries in which I’ve traveled over the past few years (Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg).  Everywhere you can see the digital revolution has improved the basic infrastructure.  Mass transit within and between cities is uniformly inexpensive, convenient and safe.

Of course if we raised taxes and thereby had the money to fix our infrastructure, invest in better public schools, develop more mass transit and finance health care reform, some people would say we’ve become socialists.  And they might call us commies if we kept our noses and our troops firmly planted outside the internal affairs of other countries.

And who would want that?

17 thoughts on “If you want it, you have to pay for it, and that means higher taxes.

  1. I dont see how anyone can disagree with you. Great post and I am looking forward to reading some more of your posts on this blog. I really enjoy your writing style. Thanks p.s did you hear about Obama’s new plan?

  2. This blog has certainly altered my perspective on this subject. Theres no way I wouldve believed about it this way if I hadnt arrive across your blog site. All I had been carrying out was cruising the net and I discovered your weblog and all of a sudden my views have adjusted. Excellent on you!

  3. A friend emailed me a link to your blog. He said, “Hey check this blog out, it sounds just like you”, and wow was he ever right. If I didn’t know better I could have sworn I’d written some of these posts myself. Thanks for making me smile today.

  4. WHAT LUCK! I just happened to stumble on your site. this is really great stuff! I have bookmarked. I will be back!

  5. Exceptional read, I have to admit. You’ve researched the topic extremely well 🙂

  6. And stop using that lame leftist straw man to try to justify it. No one has told the Muslims that they can’t build a mosque. Those of us who oppose are saying “don’t do it THERE.” There are zoning ordinances across the nation that dictate where various businesses and other organizations can build. This is no different. There has already been discussion in NY about allowing this bunch to put the mosque somewhere else. But now that Obama has (again) stuck his nose in where it doesn’t belong, things are escalating out of control.

  7. That is really intriguing. It presented me a few ideas and I’ll be writing them on my website soon. I’m bookmarking your site and I’ll be back. Thanks again!

  8. With all the damage that we are doing to this earth I am not sure how much longer it will go forward, I think we should do more to help and stop consuming all its natural resources.

  9. Great website and great information. You are very knowledgeable about this topic and i can’t wait until we come back and visit your website again!

Leave a Reply to Brian Buonadonna Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *