Taxation is the price we pay for being uncivilized
Every April, Americans revisit their complicated relationship with taxation.
On one side we are taught to venerate taxation. Inscribed above the entrance to the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service are the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” When distilled, the phrase boils taxation down to this essential claim: a public good that is necessary to the maintenance of our civilization.
Despite the civic connotations of this inscription, most Americans usually mumble libertarian grievances under their breath when filing their tax returns. In fact, most Americans loathe taxes. According to a recent Gallup poll, 63% of Americans think their federal income tax is “too high”, 56% have either an unfavorable view of the IRS, and 71% state that they either “hate” or “dislike” completing their taxes annually.
So how can we both revere and despise taxation all at the same time? Perhaps taxpayers are not happy with the civilization that they are getting in return.
It’s the very same civilization that dedicates a sizeable chunk of its budget to war and militarism. More than half (54%) of federal discretionary spending is dedicated to military spending. And with the passing of the massive $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, the Department of Defense is scheduled to receive an extra $61 billion, exceeding its previous cap of $700 billion. US military spending is bigger than the next seven countries combined — six of which we have friendly relations with. The price of policing the world seems to know no bounds.
And has this excessive spending produced a lasting peace? Quite the opposite, actually. The Washington Post conducted an analysis to determine what portion of Americans’ lives have taken place during times of war. Anybody born after 1982 has spent at least half of their life living during wartime. For those born after 2001, they have never known peace. In fact, those born this year are about old enough to serve militarily in Afghanistan, the very same war they were born into over 16 years ago. With the specter of armed conflict in Syria, the limits of American war weariness will be stretched yet again.
In comparison to what we spend making war, we don’t seem to have much money left over to repair the scorched earth it leaves behind. And no group of people experience this neglect more so than our nation’s 22 million veterans. Considering the high rates of suicide, homelessness, mental health issues, and unemployment that burden this community, it is more than apparent that we have failed veterans.
These terrible dividends on our investment are not just limited to militarism. Taxpayers feel cheated by the broken promise of a financially-secured retirement — even though they have paid a hefty sum of their own money into the system. They are pissed about a decades-long drug war that has cost trillions of dollars, destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives, extorted countless property, watered down civil liberties, and — after all of this — still hasn’t achieved any of its original goals of reducing drug use. They are distraught about an incarceration rate that not only exceeds, but also dwarfs those of totalitarian countries like China and Russia. They are leery about a surveillance state that is hellbent on monitoring and spying on every aspect of their private lives.
And don’t get them started on their financial managers of their investment — Congress — because all they seem capable of mismanaging the money. As of this writing this article, our national debt sits at $21 trillion. We spend more federal dollars on debt service than we do on transportation, education, and scientific research combined. And payments to debt service are only getting worse: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that interest payments will increase from $220 billion per year to $644 billion — nearly triple the amount in such a short time frame.
No, taxation is not the price we pay for civilization; it is the price we pay for being uncivilized.
