looking for input
I’m thinking about writing a new book and/or starting a new organization, and I’m curious about how you folks would respond to the following mini-manifesto. Comments would be appreciated.
The anti-tax spirit of the last forty years has, I believe, gone too far and undermined our country’s security and prosperity. It has made us pile on debt, defer needed maintenance on levees and water mains and other public infrastructure, and fail to develop the skills and capabilities of too many of our young people. Until 1980 Americans took on debt during wartime or economic crises and paid it back during times of peace and prosperity. Since 1980, however, the anti-tax movement has overwhelmed our history of financial prudence and created a culture of scarcity that does not bode well for our future.
One of the big purposes of a modern government is to simplify our lives by doing things that are best done by specialists. I should not have to test my spinach, tomatoes, or ground beef to make sure it is safe to eat. I should not have to monitor the dam near my home to make sure it is maintained properly and will withstand a big rainstorm. I should not have to repair the roads near my house, or repair my car’s axle when it falls into a pothole. I should not have to boil my own water. The more time each of us individually spends worrying about such things, the less time we have for family, work, and other activities of our choosing.
Most of what government does for us is invisible. When it works well, we can think about other, more interesting, things. We only notice it when something goes wrong. This reality can give people the impression that government workers only make mistakes, but that’s not true: we just don’t notice all the invisible ways they make our lives easier.
More things will go wrong, however, when government is starved for resources - when there aren’t enough food inspectors or people to repair bridges. When we cut taxes, or when we accept the attitude of “good enough for government work,” we make it more likely that things will go wrong and we, individually, will have to deal with the consequences. Sometimes that’s just a matter of hassle and money, but sometimes people’s lives are at risk. The more time people spend dealing with preventable problems, the less real prosperity and security we have both as individuals and as a country.
For the last thirty years, we have not paid for the government services we have received. Some debt is fine: a bond to spread the expense of a new bridge over thirty years, for example. But the current amount of public debt threatens the health of our economy. The only way to pay public debt is through public revenues, a.k.a. taxes. If foreign investors decide we are so anti-tax that we are not credit-worthy, then the financial crisis of 2008 will look like the early rumblings before an earthquake.
The anti-tax extremists argue that no one owes anybody anything, but that position undermines one of the basic principles of citizenship: that we have a relationship with each other, and a responsibility to each other, just because we were born in the same country. True patriotism means trying to do what is best for our country as well as what is best for ourselves. Ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We should seek to make sure that it never perishes from this earth, not (as Grover Norquist suggested) try to drown it in a bathtub.
Most Americans are centrists, not extremists. But few people have been willing to become public voices explaining why taxes are useful and important. Sure, there’s such a thing as taxing an economy too highly - but our danger in this generation is taxing ourselves too lightly to do what we need to do. Sure, there’s such a thing as wasteful government spending - but there’s also wasteful personal spending and corporate spending. Our country faces many challenges, and a reflexive anti-tax, anti government, anti-citizenship ideology will not help with any of them. If we want a healthy society, we need a healthy balance between common efforts and individual initiatives. If we want a healthy economy, we need to have a realistic understanding of which public services actually help our economy, and we need to be willing to pay for those services with taxes, not debt.
I am thinking about doing the following things:
(1) Write a short book (roughly 100 pages) explaining why taxes are good and important and valuable, countering some of the standard anti-tax arguments, and calling for a balanced economy that truly promotes the good of our country. This book would be the foundation for magazine articles, op-ed pieces, and a webpage.
(2) Start a membership organization for people who believe in effective public services paid for by taxes, not debt. My hope is that this organization would provide a political counter-weight to the anti-tax organizations. I sometimes think of it as a pro-tax organization, but of course its goal isn’t taxes per se, it’s what taxes can accomplish.
So let me start by asking my LiveJournal friends … would this project interest you?
The anti-tax spirit of the last forty years has, I believe, gone too far and undermined our country’s security and prosperity. It has made us pile on debt, defer needed maintenance on levees and water mains and other public infrastructure, and fail to develop the skills and capabilities of too many of our young people. Until 1980 Americans took on debt during wartime or economic crises and paid it back during times of peace and prosperity. Since 1980, however, the anti-tax movement has overwhelmed our history of financial prudence and created a culture of scarcity that does not bode well for our future.
One of the big purposes of a modern government is to simplify our lives by doing things that are best done by specialists. I should not have to test my spinach, tomatoes, or ground beef to make sure it is safe to eat. I should not have to monitor the dam near my home to make sure it is maintained properly and will withstand a big rainstorm. I should not have to repair the roads near my house, or repair my car’s axle when it falls into a pothole. I should not have to boil my own water. The more time each of us individually spends worrying about such things, the less time we have for family, work, and other activities of our choosing.
Most of what government does for us is invisible. When it works well, we can think about other, more interesting, things. We only notice it when something goes wrong. This reality can give people the impression that government workers only make mistakes, but that’s not true: we just don’t notice all the invisible ways they make our lives easier.
More things will go wrong, however, when government is starved for resources - when there aren’t enough food inspectors or people to repair bridges. When we cut taxes, or when we accept the attitude of “good enough for government work,” we make it more likely that things will go wrong and we, individually, will have to deal with the consequences. Sometimes that’s just a matter of hassle and money, but sometimes people’s lives are at risk. The more time people spend dealing with preventable problems, the less real prosperity and security we have both as individuals and as a country.
For the last thirty years, we have not paid for the government services we have received. Some debt is fine: a bond to spread the expense of a new bridge over thirty years, for example. But the current amount of public debt threatens the health of our economy. The only way to pay public debt is through public revenues, a.k.a. taxes. If foreign investors decide we are so anti-tax that we are not credit-worthy, then the financial crisis of 2008 will look like the early rumblings before an earthquake.
The anti-tax extremists argue that no one owes anybody anything, but that position undermines one of the basic principles of citizenship: that we have a relationship with each other, and a responsibility to each other, just because we were born in the same country. True patriotism means trying to do what is best for our country as well as what is best for ourselves. Ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We should seek to make sure that it never perishes from this earth, not (as Grover Norquist suggested) try to drown it in a bathtub.
Most Americans are centrists, not extremists. But few people have been willing to become public voices explaining why taxes are useful and important. Sure, there’s such a thing as taxing an economy too highly - but our danger in this generation is taxing ourselves too lightly to do what we need to do. Sure, there’s such a thing as wasteful government spending - but there’s also wasteful personal spending and corporate spending. Our country faces many challenges, and a reflexive anti-tax, anti government, anti-citizenship ideology will not help with any of them. If we want a healthy society, we need a healthy balance between common efforts and individual initiatives. If we want a healthy economy, we need to have a realistic understanding of which public services actually help our economy, and we need to be willing to pay for those services with taxes, not debt.
I am thinking about doing the following things:
(1) Write a short book (roughly 100 pages) explaining why taxes are good and important and valuable, countering some of the standard anti-tax arguments, and calling for a balanced economy that truly promotes the good of our country. This book would be the foundation for magazine articles, op-ed pieces, and a webpage.
(2) Start a membership organization for people who believe in effective public services paid for by taxes, not debt. My hope is that this organization would provide a political counter-weight to the anti-tax organizations. I sometimes think of it as a pro-tax organization, but of course its goal isn’t taxes per se, it’s what taxes can accomplish.
So let me start by asking my LiveJournal friends … would this project interest you?