Taxes and a civilized society
By Holly Young
About 250 years ago, somebody defended taxes.
“The expenses of government, having for their object the interest of all, should be borne by everyone, and the more a man enjoys the advantages of society, the more he ought to hold himself honored in contributing to those expenses,” said 18th-century French economist Anne Robert Jacques Turgot.
In other words, when people create their own community, there are certain things they need to call themselves a community. Infrastructure, security, and healthcare are some of the main requirements. In order to fund these requirements, taxes were created. Since all of these things are for the entire community, the entire community pays a portion to create and maintain these services. Anne Robert Jacques Turgot said taxes pay for “the advantages of society” and that people should be happy to contribute their share for these community advantages. Without taxes, living as a cohesive society would be very difficult.
It’s common for people to joke about taxes being legal thievery by the government, but when you sit down and have a serious talk about taxes, their purpose, and how they affect the average person, there are some pretty positive results. People appreciate the fact that the roadways get repaired when they’re damaged over time. People appreciate being supported by the state government when they are disabled. People appreciate feeling safe. However, even those who appreciate what they get for taxes would like to see changes in tax policy.
I interviewed Michelle Smith, John Young, and Rhonda Vaccaro-Young so I could learn their experiences with taxes and how they thought tax policies could be improved. Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Vaccaro-Young felt that there are sufficient funds towards education. Mr. Young and Mrs. Smith agreed that infrastructure was one of the most important use of taxes. In all though, they agreed that their lives are better due to the “advantages of society” provided through taxation.
John Young is a small business owner. He owns and operates Range Pond Campground in Poland, Maine. He said infrastructure was the single most important government use of taxes, due to infrastructure being a prime way to create jobs, foster transportation, and “raise the standard of living.” He also believes we spend far too much on foreign aid, especially since sometimes our government government chooses to aid corrupt foreign governments. With all of the debt we already have as a country, we simply can’t afford to support so many other countries, according to Young. He also believes that federal income taxes could be simplified. He has experienced too many people not knowing how it works and getting frustrated and confused because there’s just so many different rules in tax policies. He believes taxes need to be more user-friendly so everyone knows where their money is going and why.
He also thinks that some of the sections in the tax codes, such Section 179, place the wealthy at an unfair advantage. Section 179 is the section that deals with tax write-offs. A business can write off business expenses and not pay taxes on those expenses for a certain period of time. Unfortunately the new tax policies allow for accelerated write-off, which means business expenses can be written off much more quickly. For example, in the past if a businessman bought a building, he would have to take many years to write it off. This means that in that time he would have to pay at least some taxes on it because he can only fully write it off over the course of around 10 years. Now, with the accelerated program, it only takes about five years.
Translation: Under the current rules, the business owner can buy a building, write it off, and never pay taxes on it because he only owned it for five years, and then resell it for a higher price. This is extremely dangerous and allows for extremely wealthy people to take advantage of the system and just rake in more and more money by avoiding taxes. Mr. Young believes this is wrong, as wealthy people can definitely afford those taxes and are just making it harder on all of the poorer people because they have to make up the lost government revenue in the end.
Rhonda Vaccaro-Young is an elementary school teacher with more than 27 years of experience in the special education department. She works mainly with children with behavioral issues and has seen first-hand how the school system fails these children over and over again because they simply do not have the funds to support them. She believes the most important use of government taxes is for education. “Investing in education is an investment in the future,” said Vaccaro-Young, who lives in Poland and works at the Sherwood Heights School in Auburn.
The area where Vaccaro-Young works is full of children that need to be in a special education program. Unfortunately the area is also low-income, so the school does not have enough funds to accommodate all of the children that need to be placed in special education. With classrooms are overcrowded, some students are sent to the resource center, the place where children with learning disabilities are sent. The result is that students with different needs -- some behavioral, some with learning disabilities, some with other specific needs -- are lumped together. Scores and grades drop because resource children can not get the support they need and the behavioral children can not be controlled. More funding would help. That could mean higher taxes, or it could mean state government officials taking smaller salaries to help make schools meet their responsibilities.
Is that a radical idea? Consider how radical this policy is: the president of the United States, after leaving office, receives an annual stipend -- for the rest of his or her life -- equal to the highest salary of a federal government agency director. . Currently that is $207,000 per year, funded by taxes, for George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter, for the rest of their lives.
Mrs. Michelle Smith is a high school science teacher at Poland Regional High School. She similarly believes that the best government use of taxes is education and infrastructure, but she also believes that research and development for scientific purposes like the healthcare system are crucial as well.
She believes that scientific research can not only save a lot of lives, but also help the world as a whole function more safely and efficiently. She said the worst use of government taxes was the imbalance of money in the bureaucracy -- including welfare programs that need to have stricter requirements due to so many who cheating the system and deny those funds to the truly needy. Smith said she has seen many people take advantage of welfare.
Smith also discussed the tax-related issue of schools struggling because of their geographical location. A school in the city often gets more money from the government because they house more children, and cities have more high-income households than rural communities to pay higher taxes and finance better schools.
“Money should be allocated based on (the need for) financial stability,” Smith said. “More should be given to schools in poorer areas while less should be given to richer areas.”
Taxes are not just something that everyone pays because the government says you have to, no matter how many people enjoy making that joke. Taxes are actually what support the country and allow all of us to feel safe where we live, drive on well maintained roads, and support people who are unable to support themselves. Without taxes, the United States would quickly crumble.
Mr. Young, Mrs. Vaccaro-Young and Mrs. Smith have their own perspective on taxes, based on what they see and what they do for a living. They know we will never have perfect tax policies that please everyone. There will always be accusations of excessive spending in some places and not enough in others because need is always fluctuating. In the end, however, taxes will always be the cost of a civilized society.
By Holly Young
About 250 years ago, somebody defended taxes.
“The expenses of government, having for their object the interest of all, should be borne by everyone, and the more a man enjoys the advantages of society, the more he ought to hold himself honored in contributing to those expenses,” said 18th-century French economist Anne Robert Jacques Turgot.
In other words, when people create their own community, there are certain things they need to call themselves a community. Infrastructure, security, and healthcare are some of the main requirements. In order to fund these requirements, taxes were created. Since all of these things are for the entire community, the entire community pays a portion to create and maintain these services. Anne Robert Jacques Turgot said taxes pay for “the advantages of society” and that people should be happy to contribute their share for these community advantages. Without taxes, living as a cohesive society would be very difficult.
It’s common for people to joke about taxes being legal thievery by the government, but when you sit down and have a serious talk about taxes, their purpose, and how they affect the average person, there are some pretty positive results. People appreciate the fact that the roadways get repaired when they’re damaged over time. People appreciate being supported by the state government when they are disabled. People appreciate feeling safe. However, even those who appreciate what they get for taxes would like to see changes in tax policy.
I interviewed Michelle Smith, John Young, and Rhonda Vaccaro-Young so I could learn their experiences with taxes and how they thought tax policies could be improved. Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Vaccaro-Young felt that there are sufficient funds towards education. Mr. Young and Mrs. Smith agreed that infrastructure was one of the most important use of taxes. In all though, they agreed that their lives are better due to the “advantages of society” provided through taxation.
John Young is a small business owner. He owns and operates Range Pond Campground in Poland, Maine. He said infrastructure was the single most important government use of taxes, due to infrastructure being a prime way to create jobs, foster transportation, and “raise the standard of living.” He also believes we spend far too much on foreign aid, especially since sometimes our government government chooses to aid corrupt foreign governments. With all of the debt we already have as a country, we simply can’t afford to support so many other countries, according to Young. He also believes that federal income taxes could be simplified. He has experienced too many people not knowing how it works and getting frustrated and confused because there’s just so many different rules in tax policies. He believes taxes need to be more user-friendly so everyone knows where their money is going and why.
He also thinks that some of the sections in the tax codes, such Section 179, place the wealthy at an unfair advantage. Section 179 is the section that deals with tax write-offs. A business can write off business expenses and not pay taxes on those expenses for a certain period of time. Unfortunately the new tax policies allow for accelerated write-off, which means business expenses can be written off much more quickly. For example, in the past if a businessman bought a building, he would have to take many years to write it off. This means that in that time he would have to pay at least some taxes on it because he can only fully write it off over the course of around 10 years. Now, with the accelerated program, it only takes about five years.
Translation: Under the current rules, the business owner can buy a building, write it off, and never pay taxes on it because he only owned it for five years, and then resell it for a higher price. This is extremely dangerous and allows for extremely wealthy people to take advantage of the system and just rake in more and more money by avoiding taxes. Mr. Young believes this is wrong, as wealthy people can definitely afford those taxes and are just making it harder on all of the poorer people because they have to make up the lost government revenue in the end.
Rhonda Vaccaro-Young is an elementary school teacher with more than 27 years of experience in the special education department. She works mainly with children with behavioral issues and has seen first-hand how the school system fails these children over and over again because they simply do not have the funds to support them. She believes the most important use of government taxes is for education. “Investing in education is an investment in the future,” said Vaccaro-Young, who lives in Poland and works at the Sherwood Heights School in Auburn.
The area where Vaccaro-Young works is full of children that need to be in a special education program. Unfortunately the area is also low-income, so the school does not have enough funds to accommodate all of the children that need to be placed in special education. With classrooms are overcrowded, some students are sent to the resource center, the place where children with learning disabilities are sent. The result is that students with different needs -- some behavioral, some with learning disabilities, some with other specific needs -- are lumped together. Scores and grades drop because resource children can not get the support they need and the behavioral children can not be controlled. More funding would help. That could mean higher taxes, or it could mean state government officials taking smaller salaries to help make schools meet their responsibilities.
Is that a radical idea? Consider how radical this policy is: the president of the United States, after leaving office, receives an annual stipend -- for the rest of his or her life -- equal to the highest salary of a federal government agency director. . Currently that is $207,000 per year, funded by taxes, for George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter, for the rest of their lives.
Mrs. Michelle Smith is a high school science teacher at Poland Regional High School. She similarly believes that the best government use of taxes is education and infrastructure, but she also believes that research and development for scientific purposes like the healthcare system are crucial as well.
She believes that scientific research can not only save a lot of lives, but also help the world as a whole function more safely and efficiently. She said the worst use of government taxes was the imbalance of money in the bureaucracy -- including welfare programs that need to have stricter requirements due to so many who cheating the system and deny those funds to the truly needy. Smith said she has seen many people take advantage of welfare.
Smith also discussed the tax-related issue of schools struggling because of their geographical location. A school in the city often gets more money from the government because they house more children, and cities have more high-income households than rural communities to pay higher taxes and finance better schools.
“Money should be allocated based on (the need for) financial stability,” Smith said. “More should be given to schools in poorer areas while less should be given to richer areas.”
Taxes are not just something that everyone pays because the government says you have to, no matter how many people enjoy making that joke. Taxes are actually what support the country and allow all of us to feel safe where we live, drive on well maintained roads, and support people who are unable to support themselves. Without taxes, the United States would quickly crumble.
Mr. Young, Mrs. Vaccaro-Young and Mrs. Smith have their own perspective on taxes, based on what they see and what they do for a living. They know we will never have perfect tax policies that please everyone. There will always be accusations of excessive spending in some places and not enough in others because need is always fluctuating. In the end, however, taxes will always be the cost of a civilized society.
