A Tax Day Challenge for the Left (and Right)

4/15/2009

"Could America exist without an income tax? The idea seems radical, yet in truth America did just fine without a federal income tax for the first 126 years of its history. Prior to 1913, the government operated with revenues raised through tariffs, excise taxes, and property taxes, without ever touching a worker's paycheck...."
-Ron Paul

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Each and every year on April 15th, everyone I know becomes a libertarian for the day. All the government programs and federally funded programs don’t mean jack when it comes time to cut a check and pay for it out of their own salaries.

All year long, my friends on the left rail on and on about the wonders of government programs and how incredibly horrific our country would be without them- but they don’t want to pay for them anymore than the next guy. If they did, they’d be putting a little extra money into the coffers of the IRS rather than looking for the loopholes.

Here’s my challenge to my Democrat, Socialist, and Lefty friends out there:

If you truly believe that the government is the best entity to provide for the needs of this country, go ahead and pay extra taxes this year.

But if you don’t- if you’re looking for ways to minimize your own tax obligation, please join me in reconsidering the role of government. Because from where I stand, if you can’t give them more than they ask of you, then it's pretty clear that you don’t really believe, in the depths of your heart, that government is the answer to the world’s problems.

Juliana link

4/15/2009 02:15:29 am

Using the same logic, one could challenge the right wing to a similar challenge. During tax day, use only the government services you'd be willing to pay for. We have some nice unpaved dirt roads, free of tolls, in Osceola County you can try out. After you drive to the end of said barely-navigable road, you could build a house without any city utilities, buy a shotgun to keep out the gators and robbers, teach your children yourself and then set fire to a bedroom so you can try to put it out yourself.

But even if you live that way, as many people do, the fire department would still make their way over to your house eventually, once the plume of smoke became obvious to your closest neighbors 15 miles away. And the truth is that most of us (even a fair amount of Libertarians) chose to live in cities, surrounded by federal and local government amenities of every sort, many of which we take for granted. As much as we might like to go back to the 1900s and pay no income tax, most Americans these days would die quickly out on the frontier.

I respect a healthy demand for accountability in government spending (which I'm still waiting for Republicans to request). I'm even for doing away with a lot of ridiculous government expenditures out there. But to say we can do without a federal income tax in this day and age is a bit absurd. We'd have to sell Alaska back to the Russians.

Tom Lane link

4/15/2009 03:26:32 am

Do you trust banks to safeguard your money? Do you trust manufacturers to monitor what they pump into the air you breathe and the water your family drinks? Are you and your neighbors willing to pay for all of the damage caused by the next hurricane (or flood or fire or earthquake) that destroys the community you live in? Do you trust developers and the timber industry to set aside land for parks and wilderness? Do you trust peanut suppliers to ship only the product that they know is safe and fit for human consumption?

Until individuals and corporations demonstrate that they can be trusted to act responsibly and therefore do not need to be regulated, government will continue to be another of those "necessary evils." It's imperfect, to be sure, but the alternatives are worse.

Nathan link

4/15/2009 06:12:31 am

@Juliana, great challenge! I agree with you that it probably sounds absurd to do away with taxes completely- and I'm very certain that they WON'T ever go away. But I wonder what where we would be today if our government had decided against an income tax and reigned in programs and spending appropriately? Just like average Americans, spending usually increases with increased income. Obviously, Congress (and the last President "whose name must not be spoken") have spent even MORE than the taxes they collected. Maybe we wouldn't have this Multi Trillion Dollar Debt hanging over our country if we hadn't decided to go this route.

@Tom, those are a lot of really great questions. As always, I believe the only role of Federal Government is to protect the Life, Liberty, and Property of individuals.

That said, I firmly believe that business regulates itself when it is allowed to and motivated properly, through selfishness rather than regulation. Yes, I believe that selfish people (we are all this way) work best in a system that encourages people to act appropriately for selfish reasons...

For instance,
A company can only pollute for so long before no one will trust or buy from them. Selfish companies, therefore, stop polluting so that they can stay in favor with their customers.

An unethical bank who loses their clients money, fails (unless the government pumps money into it). Selfish banks, therefore, take as much as they can without losing their clients money.

Yes, I am willing to pay for damages to my own property, but there are a number of private insurers who are also eager (selfishly) to take money from people in exchange for disaster protection. If they claim "act of God" escape clauses in the wake of a disaster, they won't last beyond that the first disaster.

When a restaurant is linked with Salmonella poisoning- no one eats there any longer. I noticed Jack-In-The-Box up there in Seattle. There aren't any in Florida because after some kids got sick at a Birthday party, they all had to close because no one would eat there.

We all know that businesses and individuals will NEVER act responsibly- but neither will governments because they, too, are made up of people. The only difference is, you can't simply stop buying what the government's selling in order to get things changed...Do that, and it's call Tax Evasion.

Seth link

4/15/2009 09:35:07 pm

Nathan about selfishness: Have you read Ayn Rand's 'the virtue of selfishness'? I've yet to pick it up but I suspect she would echo much of what you've said.

Now, I've been hearing a lot of this "less government, less taxes" sentiments and while I do agree that what these taxes go towards in some cases are irresponsible (to put it mildly) I have to remind myself of all of the horror stories I've learned about leading up to the great depression. If there is any instance in american history that we "never forget" - let's never forget the mess that lassez faire capitalism got us into all those years ago. This, of course, doesn't give license to the government to turn tail and become socialist - but regulation is needed in a corrupt world where selfish interest is usually at the expense of others.

Nathan link

4/15/2009 11:09:45 pm

@ Seth- I agree with you that there's some danger to "Lassez Faire Capitalism" gone wrong. But, one of the worst contributors to the Great Depression was actually the introduction of a new Central Bank (called the Federal Reserve) and a move away from sound money. When the Central Government keeps feeding private institutions money at "lower than normal interest rates"- it's a manipulation of the private market.

I compare this to the housing problem. We can blame the individual home owners who were taking risks they shouldn't have, but we also need to blame the banks who were approving such atrocious loans in the first place. And it doesn't stop there; the banks were encouraged to keep borrowing and borrowing by the Government itself who kept interest rates artificially low so that the economy would continue booming.

Would banks have naturally approved these loans? Maybe. But I have a feeling their greed was exacerbated by The Fed manipulating the money supply.

Since the same thing happened prior to the Great Depression, I have a hard time naming capitalism as the sole cause. But, it's still a good warning that we shouldn't place our trust in corporations any more than we should place our trust in our government.

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12/9/2010 03:33:20 pm

If we should ever accomplish anything in life, let us not forget that we must persevere

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A Tax Day Challenge for the Left (and Right)

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