It's said by middle class Americans that one class pays taxes, and another class gets the benefits. That is probably greatly exaggerated, yet I would agree it still holds some truth.
Yes, we all benefit from police and fire protection, public sanitation, a strong military, the (increasingly irrelevant) postal system, etc, but individually, most of us in the middle class simply don't qualify for any public perk. We pay for them, yet we "make too much" to qualify ourselves. No wonder we're resentful.
Europeans pay considerably higher taxes than we do, but I've read that most pay it willingly (Greeks, Italians, and a few others excepted) because the average taxpayer there personally gets something in return. Higher education is subsidized or is free, health care is subsidized or is free, day care is subsidized or is free, elderly care is subsidized or is free, and so forth. Not just for the poor, but for everyone.
I'm not saying we should necessarily emulate European socialism, but just pointing out how even middle class taxpayers there recieve something for their tax dollars....er....Euros. They're getting "bang for their buck".
If you're middle class in America, you're on your own. You pay, you just don't get your money's worth in return. As long as you have a good job and believe a bright future awaits you, you'll pay for your kid's daycare and college tuition, mom's nursing home, etc, out of your pocket and still pay your taxes and not think much of it. But in this age of globalization, that often isn't possible any more.
Anyone remember when Ross Perot ran for president back in 1992? Free trade agreements were the hot topic back then (the opening salvo of globalization) and Ross said, "That giant sucking sound you hear will be American jobs going overseas." Prices were cheaper at Walmart, so (almost) everyone was happy. We lost a few jobs initially, but no big deal.
The next year, a few more jobs left, but the price of a toaster was cheaper still so who cared?...on and on. Now the news (USA Today, Yahoo) reports that 4 of 5 middle class Americans are fearful of their future and are essentially just hanging on.
Yes, we're creating new jobs once again, but they generally aren't anywhere near as high paying as the ones we've lost. We're constantly lowering the bar.
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A real world example of the mess we've caused for ourselves: Our roads and bridges are crumbling. They say it will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to fix them, money the state and federal governments don't have.
Road maintenance and expansion are paid for with gasoline sales taxes. Because new cars get better (mandated) mileage these days, more people can drive more cars more miles and still buy less gasoline. They put more strain on our highways, yet pay less taxes to maintain them.
We really need to *gasp* raise gas taxes. In my state most of our new major roads are toll roads. So now I'm not paying more taxes, but I'm paying tolls instead. My wallet can't tell the difference.
Paying more taxes isn't necessarily a bad thing IF YOU CAN SHOW ME I'M PERSONALLY GETTING SOMETHING OF VALUE FOR IT.
The politicians are just playing games with us. Yet by touting their tax cutting record, we keep re-electing them. We've become a nation of airheads.
S
