I’ve always heard only two things are certain in life: death and taxes. It sure makes for a depressing outlook on life. Taxation is a very strange concept, but one with which we are all too familiar. We have come to terms with the fact that taxes are a necessary evil. Every April, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn’t the only person cursing America. The IRS doesn’t joke around. If you don’t pay your taxes, you get to look forward to fines, jail or even a cabinet nomination from President Barack Obama. Taxes are necessary to fund a number of the government’s purposes, but in today’s world, most of our tax dollars go toward other programs. According to economist Walter Williams, most of what’s taken by the government (up to two-thirds) is given to another American in some form of welfare program. He goes on to call this redistribution of wealth a form of slavery. After all, slavery is essentially when “one person is forcibly used to serve the purposes of another person and has no legal claim to the fruits of his labor.” I completely agree with him.
Let me give you a hypothetical situation similar to one Williams uses. Let’s pretend that when you drive to school every day, you see a little old lady waiting at the bus stop. Eventually, she becomes too old to sit outside and brave the elements to wait for the bus to come so she can do her errands. Would you support some form of legislation that forces a fellow college student to chauffeur her around Starkville while she completes her errands? Would you also punish him if he refused to drive her whenever she requested it, in the form of fines or even imprisonment? Would you want this law to be passed and enforced in southern Florida, where the elderly outnumber the young? I can’t even begin to imagine how big that tax would have to be.
I hope no one would condone such legislation, because it is obvious slavery. What if, instead, the college student was forced to pay $40 a week of his income to hire a chauffeur to drive her? This may seem a little better, but you are still requiring this student to give up part of his income, which he worked for. What if everybody in Starkville had to pay a small fee each week to hire the little old lady’s driver? This circumstance may seem the most desirable. After all, the victims are invisible but the recipient is clear. A poor, little old woman who only wants to do her chores is now able to get to Wal-Mart or wherever else she needs to go.
Don’t be fooled, this situation is just as bad as the first. Even though everybody has to pay and it may only be a small fee, that portion of their income doesn’t go to where it belongs. Instead of ending up in the pockets of those who earned it, it goes to help the little old lady. Therefore, those workers are being “forcibly used to serve the purposes of another.” This is exactly what Abraham Lincoln opposed in his second inaugural address when he said he was against people “wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces.” This, my friends, is slavery. You might ask what this little scenario has to do with taxation.
Well, I mentioned earlier that a large portion of the taxes our government collects goes toward handout programs, and that is exactly what my hypothetical situation was. It may not have seemed wrong to you, although I hope it did, but it’s something that the government has been doing for a long time. James Madison once said, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” He was referring to the use of government funds to aid French refugees, but today, those refugees are none other than American citizens. Granted, these citizens may really be in a tough place, they may be down on their luck and just aching to get back into the job market.
But is it really the government’s place to take money from other American citizens and give it to them? Isn’t anyone worried about creating a dependence on the government for money? Ronald Reagan once said, “The greatest social program is a job.” He was exactly right. When you can look to the government to provide for you, you lose the incentive to provide for yourself. Instead of a nation of responsible, hardworking Americans, we will create a society of lazy, dependent welfare queens. We also will create a reluctance to make voluntary charitable contributions if the government has already extorted money from us. It’s hard to get angry at welfare benefactors, even those who could very easily survive without it. They’re simply making hay while the sun shines. I’d like to say it’s their responsibility to try and succeed and contribute to society, but it seems today that no one is held accountable anymore. They’re taking advantage of a flawed system and they’re making lemonade. I hope life doesn’t give them sugar and water, so that their lemonade sucks.
I find it funny that the government rewards those who don’t work but penalizes those that do. According to The Washington Times, “The IRS says that nearly 46 million tax filers – one-third of all filers – had no [income] tax liability in 2006.” On the other end of the spectrum, the so-called rich pay a higher income tax than the so-called normal working American. By “normal,” I am referring to those who actually pay income taxes. As a result, the top 1 percent of Americans pays 35 percent of all income taxes, according to The Wall Street Journal. This seems ridiculous to me. Is that really their fair share of the tax burden, especially when the bottom 60 percent pays less than 1 percent of all income taxes?
I am against the progressive tax system we use here in America because it penalizes higher earners. Just because you make more money doesn’t mean you should pay a higher percentage of those earnings in taxes. You will already be paying more money in taxes simply because your income is higher, and 30 percent of $1 million is a lot more than 30 percent of $100,000.
Instead, everyone should share an equal tax burden, regardless of your income. It is this inequality that makes the idea of a flat sales tax look very good. Even the poor have to buy things. Then again, I’m sure sales tax exemptions will be handed out like candy on Halloween if a flat tax were ever instituted.
If I recall correctly, cries of “no taxation without representation” were quite prevalent during the time of our founding fathers. Today, I think a similar cry should be made: “No representation without taxation.” That’s right, if you don’t pay your taxes, you shouldn’t get to vote. I’m sure this is a radical idea to many of you, but I definitely think it deserves some thought. Unless some serious changes are made in our tax and welfare systems, we may be on the road to a dark place, one filled with irresponsible victims latching onto the teat of the government for sustenance. Looks like this is another sign of our decline.
Ryan Rougeau is a junior majoring in computer engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].