Everyone Must Pay Taxes or America will Fail
submitted: Sep 1st 2008 |
by: RobViglione |
Total views: 3 |
Word Count: 433 |
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I read an article the other day talking about the usual tax statistics: top 1% of society pays 37% of taxes, top 10% pay 71%, and bottom 40% pay nothing. With the "earned" income credit many on the bottom actually are paid by the federal government for gracing this nation with the benefits of their citizenship.
For a free democracy to exist into perpetuity it must endow its citizenry with a sense of responsibility for the stewardship of State. The only way to do so is to levy taxes upon everyone who has any say in government. Everyone who can vote must be required to pay taxes, no matter how little the amount. Allowing a large, and growing, segment of the population to evade paying anything into the system, yet to keep their power to vote and influence policy is a recipe for disaster.
If 60% of the voting public can force 40% to pay the bills, what's to stop 90% of people in a democracy from making 10% pay it all? Or why not let 99% of the country off the hook, as long as the remaining 1% picks up the tab?
This is the inevitable consequence of inadequately constrained democracy, as illustrated by the British historian, Alexander Tyler, in his lifecycle of civilizations. "A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
When something is free there is little incentive to limit consumption or portion resources for long-term health. Free Big Macs at McDonald's would likely lead to obesity and a heartattack within a decade. The same goes for paying taxes, which are how we pay for the benefits living in a governed society affords. When we are not responsible for paying the bills that government generates we do not care so much for how much money is spent.
I hope America can get its act together and fix one of the only safeguards to ensuring our Democracy doesn't devolve into apathetic, dependent, serfdom. The rich should pay more taxes since they derive greater benefit from government, but the middle class and poor also derive benefits for which they must pay their proportionate share. Pandering to these majority voting blocks by promising to stick it to the rich even more sounds great from a podium, but has only one inevitable outcome.
About the Author
Rob Viglione is a author, investment fund manager, and real estate broker. A former military officer, he is passionate about promoting a free society in America. You can see more of his writing on The Freedom Factory.
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