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Taxes are not a burden; Elizabeth “Betty” Asche Douglas; Beaver County Times; April 13, 2014.
Mrs. Douglas is a local artist and, according to previous letters, “is a retired Geneva College professor.” Previous letters from Mrs. Douglas are here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Taxes are not a burden when they are fairly and equitably assessed and the monies raised are wisely used to fulfill the requirements of the taxing authority of the community it serves.”
[RWC] As a former college instructor, Mrs. Douglas must know the primary definitions of “burden” include “duty,” “load,” and “responsibility.” A secondary definition is “something oppressive or worrisome.”
The Devil is in the details, of course. What is Mrs. Douglas’ definition of “fairly and equitably assessed and the monies raised are wisely used?”
Please read the “Taxes” section of my paper “Economics.” From most conservatives’ point of view, the sole purpose of taxes is to pay for government overhead. Though overhead is not inherently good or bad, you’ll find all businesses – both profit and nonprofit - attempt to minimize overhead consistent with business goals. For example, while all businesses must expend resources on accounting, they want to spend the minimum required to meet business and legal requirements. The same should be true for government.
“‘You get what you pay for’ is an oft-repeated truism, and it applies to taxes as well as for the other things we purchase.”
[RWC] One big difference; we can choose “the other things we purchase,” but not the taxes we must pay.
“We expect value, and when we get what we bargained for, it is not burdensome.”
[RWC] At what level do taxes transition from responsibility to “burdensome?” According to the Tax Foundation, the average Pennsylvania and U.S. family will work 111 days in 2014 – 30.4% of the year – just to pay all of its taxes. That sounds like a large burden to me. As large as that figure is, however, it may understate the real story because that measure treats every calendar day as a workday. If you consider a five-day workweek, 111 days is actually 42.7% of a 260-day (52 weeks x 5 days) work-year. Using that measure, the average Pennsylvania and U.S. family will work through June 4th just to pay taxes. Wouldn’t you consider that to be “burdensome?”
“To refer to taxes as a burden instills the wrong message in our minds. We demand services from our governmental authorities and gripe when we don’t get them. Then we gripe about having to pay for them! I am gratified by having the means to pay the taxes that provide the services necessary for a good life.”
[RWC] What “services” do “we demand … from our governmental authorities and gripe when we don’t get them … [and] then … gripe about having to pay for them?” Who is griping about paying for “services” they actually receive? It would also be interesting to know what Mrs. Douglas considers the government “services necessary for a good life.” Were bailing out GM and giving grants/subsidies/loan guarantees to failed “green energy” businesses like Solyndra, A123 Systems, Ener1, Abound Solar, et cetera among those “services?” What about the millions blown on the taxpayer-subsidized Lazarus and Lord & Taylor department stores in downtown Pittsburgh?
“I write in response to an article on Pennsylvania taxes, written by Natasha Lindstrom of Calkins Media, published in the April 4 edition of The Times.”
[RWC] The article was entitled “Pa. ranks 10th-highest in nation for state, local tax burden.”
“‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’”
[RWC] Read Luke 12:31-35 (Douay-Rheims Bible) and you find this quote of Jesus refers to charity (“Sell what you possess and give alms.”), not taxes. Charity is when a family/person freely chooses to use its/his own paycheck to help someone in need. Since paying taxes is mandatory, there’s nothing charitable about it. Taxes were covered elsewhere (Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, and Luke 20:25) by “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s.”
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