Photo: GettyImages
We are in the last days of the time of year that can strike fear into the hearts of even the most rugged individual. It’s tax time!
‘Tis the season for frustration, moaning and gnashing of teeth. And it is as inevitable as a sunrise that a cursory search of Facebook statuses will yield a significant number of folks who lament how we pay too much in taxes, how the money goes towards useless initiatives, and how supposedly millions of freeloaders are responsible for it all.
Wow! What a crisis we have on our hands. Freeloaders, useless services… What are we to do? An investigation is warranted. Let’s examine some of those useless services.
Roads: Yep, don’t need those. Walking or running for great distances is an underrated activity. And alas, your journey may eventually end in love.
Schools: Oh, those snotty elites and their love for knowledge. Curse them and their institutions of snobbery.
Hospitals: Rub some Vicks on it, and you’ll be fine.
Police and Fire Departments: Let us simply settle our differences with an epic rap battle. And I’m sure most folks own a garden hose.
Clean Water: How much harm can a little lead do? Just run the water through a colador and it’s all good. Have some Bustelo handy while you’re at it.
The list of useless amenities goes on and on.
But, of course, they pale in comparison to the billions upon billions of immigrants who have gathered in a secret conference and devised a nefarious plot to gleefully break the laws of the United States and take our country’s most valuable jobs and resources. Or the billions of Latinos and Black citizens who are using welfare money and food stamps to buy a Mercedes Benz with 24-inch platinum rims!
Pay no attention to those inconvenient facts that clearly show how absurd these claims are, given that nearly 9 out of 10 Blacks and Latinos receive no welfare at all.
And by all means, ignore the fact that the United States has some of the lowest tax rates in the entire world. All of those other countries are merely socialist, fascist, Marxist, collectivist, Nazi, communist, Kenyan republics…at the same time!
Let us also ignore the fact that nearly six times more tax dollars go towards defense spending compared to educational initiatives. I thought I already told you that schools were for elitist snobbery.
Instead, folks, let us imagine a utopian paradise that could have only been dreamt up by the likes of Ron Paul and Ayn Rand, where all of us are simply rugged individualists who abide by a mantra of “every man for himself,” and where no bootstrap is too long for us to pull ourselves up by. Let us gleefully return to the good ole days of 1954, when the average marginal tax rate was as high as 91 percent, and when many of our marriages would have been against the law.
Oh wait…that actually kinda sucks.
About Nick Baez
Taxes are theft, my friend. When you take the money from someone else, against that individual’s will, you are acting immoral. There societies in the past tha worked without taxes. We don’t need no public schools, no public hospitals, no public anything. The private sector can do all that.
I happily paid my taxes last week and I’m glad to pay for firefighters, schools, roads, funding for scientific advances, and a bunch of other stuff that we need and would suck if it were privatized.
Bryan which sector provides better services, the private one or the public one?
@Bryan. There is a difference between local taxes for common services paid for locally and what they do at the federal level. What the federal government has done is involve itself in ALL facets of life and then place the burden on you. There is no authority for the federal government to fund science, schools, roads(exept postal), and a “bunch of other stuff”. And if privatized services “suck”, then tell me what service the federal governement manages succesfully; not in a deficit.
http://mises.org/etexts/taxrob.asp
Moises: private, of course, when you talk about the quality of an item. But these are public services, not private items. Private industry would focus on profit instead of the service itself. Imagine a world where the firefighters only put out a fire if you can afford to pay them. Look at the disparity in places where there are only private schools rather than places where all children can learn.
Kev, of course everything is in a deficit, these things require tax money to pay for in the first place. Also, sorry for my late reply, but I’m commuting from work.
everything is for profit. this life is about profit. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.” Adam Smith. I believe Education should not be a right but instead a service. Why should i pay from my own pocket for other people? It doenst make sense. For example, the Elk Grove district in rural Illinois put together a private fire service when they faced an imminent loss of protection by a nearby municipal fire department. They found that the private company was able to provide the service far cheaper than contracting with another local government. The private provider explains why:“Our first-year contract was $300,000, and we were providing the same level of service the consultant said would cost $1 million,” Jensen said. “We continue to provide service as good as that of our municipal neighbors, but because we are private, we can operate more efficiently. We save 30 to 40 percent over what a similar municipal department would cost to operate.”
The savings come mainly in personnel. The fire district has 14 full-time firefighters and 28 paid-on-call firefighters, all of whom are privately employed. None is a union member.
“We don’t pay the insane salaries that our municipal neighbors pay,” Jensen said. “Our benefits are more in line with traditional industry. We are non-union, which gives us a lot more flexibility in dealing with our employees. Salaries and benefits are the big savings, but we [also] have a shop where we can rebuild and refurbish fire apparatus for our own use.“We save money in purchasing almost anything a fire department would use, just by shopping around. We’re very cost-conscious. We watch every penny we spend,” Jensen added.
Many more cities would probably follow this road if it were not for the strong union opposition. Privatizing fire departments is not a high priority for many people, because the cost of public fire service is not a large portion of each year’s taxes paid. However, those who have studied it have found that—just as Elk Grove saved through private sector provision—private fire services are cheaper and more efficient.
everything is for profit. this life is about profit. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.” Adam Smith. I believe Education should not be a right but instead a service. Why should i pay from my own pocket for other people? It doenst make sense. For example, the Elk Grove district in rural Illinois put together a private fire service when they faced an imminent loss of protection by a nearby municipal fire department. They found that the private company was able to provide the service far cheaper than contracting with another local government. The private provider explains why:“Our first-year contract was $300,000, and we were providing the same level of service the consultant said would cost $1 million,” Jensen said. “We continue to provide service as good as that of our municipal neighbors, but because we are private, we can operate more efficiently. We save 30 to 40 percent over what a similar municipal department would cost to operate.”
The savings come mainly in personnel. The fire district has 14 full-time firefighters and 28 paid-on-call firefighters, all of whom are privately employed. None is a union member.
“We don’t pay the insane salaries that our municipal neighbors pay,” Jensen said. “Our benefits are more in line with traditional industry. We are non-union, which gives us a lot more flexibility in dealing with our employees. Salaries and benefits are the big savings, but we [also] have a shop where we can rebuild and refurbish fire apparatus for our own use.“We save money in purchasing almost anything a fire department would use, just by shopping around. We’re very cost-conscious. We watch every penny we spend,” Jensen added.
Many more cities would probably follow this road if it were not for the strong union opposition. Privatizing fire departments is not a high priority for many people, because the cost of public fire service is not a large portion of each year’s taxes paid. However, those who have studied it have found that—just as Elk Grove saved through private sector provision—private fire services are cheaper and more efficient.
i wonder how many bitch about paying taxes and how things should be privatized but yet sit at their local library and type their rant on Facebook (a free service)
Bryan, deficits are a good practice? if so, why not just give every American $1,000,000 and let them spend it as they wish. The next generation can pay for it. Uncontrolled deficit spending marks a failed economy. If a business ran like the government, they would all be fired and the company liquidated. Deficit spending only occurs because the fed spends what WE earn without any concern of failure, It’s immoral. Since atleast the 80′s, +90% of what the feds take in from income tax goes to the interest on the national debt. Nothing for roads, or anything else. It’s called spending into oblivion, that’s what you prefer over the private sector??
It’s obvious that some just do as they’re told, without questioning why they do it. Facebook is not taxpayer supported, it’s supported by private funding. As for libraries, they are generally locally funded, but do you really think that we need the federal government to collect books in a building and supply some computers with internet? It’s funny how facts are “rants”, but opinions are “liked”.
I understand the desire to quote verbatim the great economists of the past who have pointed out intracacies and postulated the very extremes you mention here… But let us step away from our ideals and discuss the very real world we live in. The problem with not paying taxes is fear. Sure, Adam Smith and Mises make sense, but we do not live in a world without fear, a very real variable that constrains society’s ability to make full economic sense–reach an optimum if you will. No amount of screaming at the top of your lungs your libertarian ideals will change the fact that people resist change and need certain level of perceived security (i.e. social services). Just sayin–sure, it would be nice if we could handle the ebbs and flows of the market with regard to our public goods demand, but alas… it is not so.
Who ever enjoys paying taxes? If we payed 1% it would still be too much.
Roads /hospitals /fire & police / clean water / schools
yup read the whole thing
No way Jose, don’t take away my taxes! I mean, without taxes how would the entitled get their entitlements?
Once again, wrong answer! You suck at this game Mario!!