There’s a t.v. ad that runs almost constantly in my area featuring a “regular-guy” type grocery store owner (not many of those left) complaining about the proposed soft drink tax in New York State. At some 
point in the ad he says, “Taxes never made anyone healthy.” Interesting statement. I guess he’s never heard of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, various Health and Human Services programs, and any number of other government services, from OSHA to the FDA, that in some respect help us stay healthier as a result of tax revenues. Yeah, I know the ad is about a “sin” tax, but you can also see how taxes on cigarettes and alcohol have had a positive effect health-wise. In a sense, it’s just a way of having the price of something reflect the true cost. Sure, we want people to be healthier. But we also want to recover some of the cost of their NOT being healthy, like emergency care costs for people who sugar themselves into heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and the like. Don’t we?
I’ve probably been on this rant before, but this is such a fundamental problem in our society that it cannot be said often enough. Nobody likes paying taxes. Nobody likes taking their medicine, either (well, most people don’t), or eating their oatmeal, or washing behind their ears, or doing their homework, etc. But at some point we must put childish ways behind us (1 Corinthians 13:11 – got your bible right here, kids!) and face up to the simple fact that, yes friends, we get what we pay for… and only that. If we want to have a modern society, we have to pony up some cash to pay for it. I think that should be done in the most equitable way possible – those more able to pay pay more, those less able to pay pay less, those not able to pay pay nothing. The usual method. But taking a “taxation is bad” philosophy to its most absurd extreme is just… well… childish and short-sighted.
And yet the philosophy continues to command respect. Somehow people like Grover Norquist and his ilk are still listened to, still asked for guidance. Meanwhile, the nation’s infrastructure is falling apart, our last major investments (beyond maintenance) in roads, bridges, tunnels, rail lines, etc., now decades old. A stiff wind storm knocks out power to whole states. Instead of investing in the future of this country, we’re putting band-aids over compound fractures. The most striking irony is that these programs are being starved by the kind of deficit hawks who constantly claim that they are doing this for our children and our grandchildren, i.e. not leaving them a huge debt. Fine. There’s a solution. Get people to understand that we need to pay for things, and that civilization is not free. That’s the central point of health reform, lackluster as it may be.
It’s just that we’ve reached the point, particularly in places like California, where people want all these services, but they won’t let their representatives raise the revenues to pay for them. Sorry… that will never work for long.
luv u,
jp
