Supposedly penny pinching right wing “conservatives” have
used the phrase “tax and spend liberal” as a slur and accusation, suggesting that
progressive politicians steal excessive amounts of hard earned money from
citizens and spend it wastefully. The facts, however, reveal a
very different reality.
We, as a nation, decided a long time ago that we would all
be better off if the citizens in our democracy were literate and educated.
Public education, purchased by all of us, was deemed the best way to prepare
Americans to fulfill their responsibilities as owners of a democracy. Informed,
thinking people are required for us to be self-governing, which is what
democracy is supposed to mean. The low “group rate” we enjoy for the education of
our young is a much better deal than we could ever get if we had to provide education
for our children individually, kind of like group health insurance rates. Many
people would go without education, just as many go without health care in our current system of private health care (100,000 Americans die each year from no health insurance.) Without mass education our society would be very
different. We would be backward, economically sluggish, and (more) vulnerable
to dangerous political opportunists. Some can get by without medical
care because they do not get sick, but we all need education. There are
countries today where there is no public education, or there is some, but
parents have to pay. This circumstance insures that the poor stay poor because
parents of little means cannot afford the fees so their children are left
behind, becoming a permanent underclass.
What would it cost to have a parent stay home full time to
educate the children, or to hire teachers for each family? What about parents
whose expertise does not extend to all the knowledge a young person needs; how
many parents could train their kids in physics, art, chemistry, trigonometry, literature,
writing, business, biology, shop class, or the latest computer programs? The
education “group rate” is an enormous bargain and a tremendous efficiency. We achieve
the same efficiencies in public infrastructure. Imagine what sort of roads we
would have if each of us was responsible for the street in front of our home.
Our interstate highways are the arteries carrying the lifeblood of commerce.
Afghanistan or Tanzania are examples of the economic price of dysfunctional,
low tax governments. Dangerous, pitted dirt roads, and bridges that wash out
with heavy rain, inability to reliably get from one point to another- that is
the price of “every man for himself, get government off our backs.”
We have chosen, as a group, to utilize the efficiencies of
group purchasing to defend our borders, to have police and fire protection, to
have free public libraries and fundamental research. We have group funded space
exploration, and group funded watchdogs so that our food is safe to eat, and our
neighbors cannot freely poison our wells. People are not free to build a strip-joint next
to the grade school, packs of feral dogs don’t roam the streets, charlatans can’t
rip us off with snake oil, and manufacturers have to tell us what we are buying
and safety test it first. The internet operates on an orderly system,
established by our group tool, our government. The drivers on the road with us have
passed a driving and vision test. Our elderly, disabled, or orphaned do not
starve to death. The streets are not crowded with abandoned children, pickpockets
and beggars. We have not solved all our problems, but through our collective
tool we are working toward the most efficient, cost effective ways to address
the needs that are not easy or cost effective to address individually.
If there was a child molester or rapist in your neighborhood,
would you prefer to have an established justice system investigate, arrest, and
incarcerate that person? What if you were falsely accused? Would you prefer a
vigilante justice system, an accountable, group-owned, professional law
establishment? The bottom line is: you get what you pay for, and many things
vital to life are cheaper and better with the group discount.
Public utilities are nonprofits. They don’t siphon off part
of our fees to pay multimillion dollar salaries to CEO’s or dividends to stockholders.
Their reason to exist is to deliver the best possible service, while privately
owned, for-profit utilities exist to deliver maximum profits to investors. Group
purchasing power by government is for the most part a spectacular savings for citizens.
We get screwed when greed motivated entities are allowed to get to government decision-makers
and warp their priorities through campaign cash. Lefty, liberal government spending
priorities actually save Americans money
in the long run. Safety net spending on health care, unemployment, family planning, and food stamps, are just a few of the public investments that pay back dividends in excess of what the public spends. The people crying to get government “off their backs” are
those who want unfettered ability to trespass upon the rights of others, and
the dupes who have bought into the lie that less government, less use of our collective tool will somehow increase
personal well being. This article tells about a corporation that made three billion dollars, paid no taxes, and even took millions from our government, crying to congress about the terrible burden of corporate taxes Corning hypocrisy
The tax and spend accusation aimed at Democrats and liberals
is bogus too because the record shows that Republican administrations have run
up vastly greater public debt (over 70%) than Democratic administrations National
Debt under GOP.
Government is no more and no less than the tool we use as a
group to do those things we cannot do efficiently or at all as individuals. We
have chosen to jointly pave our roads, build bridges and sewers and water systems, protect
against fire, invading armies, and criminals. We jointly fund education, basic
research, environmental protection, public parks, and support for the needy.
We would not be a great nation if we did not join together to perform these
functions. Those who demonize all government would throw out the functional
with the dysfunctional. Governments can get out of control and do evil, and
ours has done much that is counterproductive or unsavory. Political leaders
have sold out to greedy corporate influence and waged unjust imperial wars.
This does not mean we should do nothing jointly. It means we should keep a very
close eye on those we invest with power to serve us, and we should have swift
and robust means to adjust when something goes awry. An active and vigilant
free press must keep us informed and citizens must all pay attention and participate
in the running of the country.
