Today is Christmas day, and I’m guessing if you looked at American rates of charitable giving throughout the year, you’d see us as most generous in the month of December.
So puzzle me this: why is it we have warm, fuzzy feelings for giving donations to charity but not when our tax dollars are used to help the less fortunate?
With the former, people believe they have done their part in alleviating poverty or helping feed a child and they are lauded. With the latter, I hear the same tired litany about why should their hard-earned money be taken from them and given to some lazy single mother who can’t pull herself up by her own bootstraps?
I spent part of my (secular) celebration of Christmas with my loving but conservative family. With the exception of one uncle, my generally working-class relatives look at taxes in the same way that you might regard a pile of vomit on the floor: something to be avoided at all costs; or if approached, with one’s nose pinched. And one would prefer it to be removed altogether. But ask them how they feel about giving to Catholic Charities or the Salvation Army or any other charity, and they would sing a different tune.
Some may claim that the difference between taxes and charity is that you volunteer to give to charity. Taxes are mandatory, and as such, a burden, with no option not to pay them. This would be a good argument, except for this: depending on charities to deliver services to the poor is only punishing the good guy. Good behavior should be rewarded, not penalized. The selfish guy can get away with benefiting from the positive effects of helping the less fortunate without having donated to its upkeep. What positive effects, you ask? Well, money spent on the poor generally causes ever-increasing upward mobility, so there are more people to buy Mr. Scrooge’s widgets and he makes more money; a lowered rate of crimes of desperation keep his person and his estate safe; and in a million other ways, everyone’s lives are improved.
If we decide that investing in our society is a worthy goal (and you decide that every time you give to a charity) then we must make that investment across the spectrum of people who profit. Only that will yield the sort of stable civilization that fosters a strong economy. It’s no accident that the stock market does better under Democratic presidents - sure, they tax a little more and spend a little more and regulate a little more: but remember, it was a less regulated market in 1929 that crashed. And everyone who benefits - meaning everyone! - ought to participate in donating especially if they are very fortunate. And the more fortunate, the more they should be expected to contribute; because the rich gain the most from a stable, safe economy.
And the next argument you’ll hear against taxes is the waste. $100,000 hammers and all that anecdotal evidence. Well, a good for-instance in the other direction is Medicare (with the exception of the draconian new drug benefit); it is the tightest-run health insurance ship in America right now, with its administrative overhead taking up far less of its expenditure than private insurance. In fact, in dollars spent per person, our private system is the least efficient in the developed world, despite the lies told by conservatives about the universal health care systems in other countries.
Government, just like private enterprise or non-profit charities, is only as efficient as it is administered to be.
I’m sure if we all think about it, we can detect in our lives the imprint of being on the receiving end of taxation. I was able to go to college because the government redistributed someone else’s income my way. With that B.A. under my belt (never mind the economic uselessness of writing poetry) I could improve my lot in life. And every year, the government makes sure thousand of kids get fed and sheltered, families are kept out of the cold despite a low income (an income that’s stagnated over the last few years) and seniors get a check every month so they can pay their heating bill. How is this different from a charity “hand-out”?
What we need is an attitude shift. Obviously, you do want to know what’s being done with your dollars (and this attitude, by the way, should translate to responsible buying in retail, market investments, and even in choosing your charities). But we need to acknowledge that when we send our tax money to Washington or Beacon Hill, it’s not going to waste. In large part, the government is a charity we all participate in to secure the sort of society we want - for all of us, from the most destitute family, to the very richest Wall Street mogul.
[Crossposted at BOPnews.com]
