I had a heated debate with family over the weekend. My family was complaining that “Obama is going to raise my taxes.” We got into a big argument – I told them unless they made over $250,000 (they don’t come close), they wouldn’t be taxed, but they didn’t care. “We don’t want to give our hard earned money to lazy bums!”
The irony is, one family member is a Sheriff (his paycheck comes from taxes!) and another is disabled (his disability checks come from taxes! Not to mention all the money spent making city streets, sidewalks, and facilities accessible for him). They were completely oblivious to the disconnect between their everyday lives and their positions on taxes. They see taxes as “stealing my money to give to lazy people” and they fail to see all of the services that they receive and enjoy on a daily basis as a result of taxes.
Then I asked them if they support the war, and of course they do. So I continued, “how do you expect to pay for the war? It costs us billions and billions of dollars per week to fund the war, where do you think that money comes from?” They had no answer. I was waiting for one of them to reply, “put it on the credit card, that’s what we do!” It was as if they didn’t realize that their taxes are what fund things like war, streets, police, fire, wheelchair accessibility, schools, our relatively low gas prices, national parks, etc. They were completely oblivious, they just knew that “taxes are bad!” despite all of the evidence on how taxes improve their lives.
They kept saying, “why should I pay my hard earned money to help someone else out?” I didn’t have the heart or the balls to tell them, “why should I pay my hard earned money so that you can keep getting your disability check?” The only thing I could tell them was that I’m fortunate enough to be in a position where I’m willing and able to pay a little more in order to help out those less fortunate than me.
I believe that this is the fundamental difference between the two sides of the argument – one side gains satisfaction out of helping those who are less fortunate. The other side does not.
