Tax Day Plastic

Happy April 18^th. It's also the anniversary of Paul Revere's ride. Actually it was Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott who rode, and only Prescott made it to Concord to warn the troops. Revere and Dawes were captured by the Redcoats.

And it's tax day. But you knew that. Anyway, don't wait to pay. We're all depending on you. Today's the day that we make our annual offering to Uncle Sam so he can pay for all the things he's decided we need. Like the military, roads, supervision of the food and drugs we buy, paying the salaries of bureaucrats, welfare, and other similar expenses.

Most of the year, however, we don't think about it. We only consider what the government should be doing, without giving a second thought to how it's financed. It's only on tax day that it becomes obvious that we are paying for it. For only on tax day does it become clear who is responsible for the bill. On any other day all governmental expenses are jake (or cool, or acceptable, copacetic, agreeable, or whatever other term you like). They have nothing to do with us.

So when, on some other day, we join in the demands that the government help us out with whatever we need, that it support this or that group, establish some particular program, or increase its payments to some organization (for example, the United Nations), we give no thought to the financing. The government is accountable to us and we demand that it do what is right and equitable.

And it should.

But we don't always agree on what is right and equitable. No matter. That will get worked out, and in the meantime we've been the agents of moral excellence. It's our Constitutional right to speak out, to demand that it follow whatever path we find proper. Cost is no object. We mustn't deny our country's needs, and those of our fellows who should receive the support to which they're entitled by virtue of being in this country – legally or illegally. After all, the government is paying and the government has plenty of money. Besides, those making the demands want the money to come from the rich (read: “anyone but me”). It's like paying with a credit card. It doesn't hurt until much later, and by the time the bill comes due it's hard to associate it with any particular expense. It's easier just to pay it – even if that means not having something else. There's no correlation with a specific purchase.

We spend most of the year in complete denial – we're in willful disregard of the implications of people's demands – and their ignorance of anything but what they want. (And they're entitled to whatever they desire, whether it's for themselves, or for whatever they consider just.) Very much like children they are cognizant only of their own wants – and, of course, virtue – not considering what it may cost, and who will pay. Very much like a credit card, it doesn't hurt. Someday the bill will come due, but that's not the day of the demands, so there's nothing to worry about. The problem is that, as in the case of a credit card, it's easy to overspend, and that's what we've done. Right now, March 1^st, 2017, as I write this, the national debt, according to “US Debt Clock.org, is approaching twenty trillion (yes, trillion) dollars – that's almost one hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars per taxpayer. Eventually, however, someone is going to have to pay it, no matter how far down the road we kick the can. And the main funder of the debt will be you – the taxpayer. (Maybe we can delay it long enough to be our grandchildren's problem. I'm sure they won't mind.) It's just like a credit card, only there isn't anyone or any organization that will be able to get you off the hook.

Personally and nationally we spend a good deal of time deciding what we want, not what we can afford. Sooner or later, though, we have to give some thought to what we have done. That day is today – tax day – and however righteous our demands, we have to be prepared to pay for them. Are you ready?


Many happy returns.








March 1, 2017