Importance of Taxes, Dissent, and Selflessness

Since the election I’ve been struggling to articulate my disbelief at not only the result, but also the disturbing basis of many people’s decision upon totally irrelevant “moral values.” English professor and Clock faculty advisor, Scott Coykendall forwarded a few others and me an email conversation between him and some friends regarding the election. Among other issues, a recurring theme in the conversation is the importance for cultivating and maintaining dissenting voices through discussion, writing, and art. My response to that conversation is to finally sit down and try to articulate my frustration. Through this process I hopefully inspire others to speak out. In the week before the election, The Wall Street Journal had an article about the seven largest Western oil companies (I say Western because even though most of these companies began in America, their interest in America is strictly financial – they feel no duty to the American people). The ‘Journal’ reported that these seven corporations had cash reserves of more than $70 Billion. Yes, that is a B. And this is CASH, not mere assets. There is so much that is disturbing – even absurd–about so few having so much. I’d like to point out that $70,000,000,000 is almost half of what American taxpayers have spent on the war in Iraq – so far. And many would argue that it is these seven oil companies that are to benefit most from the war. Don’t worry; I’m not going to say that there needs to be a dramatic shift in the division of wealth. Ok, maybe I will say that, but this is not my point. My questions are these: Why are the American people so willing to give money to large corporations and not the government? Does it make sense to give private interests our money? Do people really understand what it means to have low taxes? We are already seeing the effects of Bush’s tax cuts – and his promise of a permanent tax cut no doubt won him votes from folks who don’t understand the consequences of such cuts. One side effect is the record deficit. The other is that government programs that make Americans’ lives better suffer because they lack a source of income. I do not think that many Americans understand that taxes are what allow them the basic services that have enabled the American standard of living: roads and infrastructure, public safety, education, and on and on. Why are taxes so demonized? After all, we pay taxes so that the government can then invest that money in various ways back into the American people. We pay them and they take care of us. On the other hand, when we give a large corporation our money, they take it and horde it to themselves, e.g. the $70,000,000,000 in CASH the oil companies have. These companies have no intention of re-investing this money in people – unless the investment brings them even more profit. In fact, these companies are thanking their investors by buying back stock so that they don’t have to pay those investors regular dividends – which are some of the biggest perks of investment in the first place. In essence, when we pay companies, the only thing we generally get in return is a good or service that decreases in value from the minute we buy it. This basic concept needs to be reinforced or taught to Americans: the function of government is to ensure the rights and livelihood of its people; the function of corporations is to make as much money from as many people as possible. Who would you rather give your money to? Somebody who spends it on you, or somebody that takes it for their own use? And why do we continually elect people that believe that the government should not have a small percentage of our money that believes that multi-national corporations are better suited to take care of us? Of course I’m NOT advocating that Americans give all their money to the government or even that wealth should be distributed equally (equality??? what’s that). All I am saying, for example, is that if I’m going to have to spend more than $1000 a year on something like health insurance, why should I line some rich corporate pocket when I could pay the government the same amount to give me “free” healthcare? This way I know at least that when I’m not sick – which I rarely am – that some other American is getting health care or whatever else I’m paying a reasonable tax for instead of contributing to a mogul’s yacht fund. We as Americans need to become more involved and begin to understand and recognize exactly what politicians’ proposed policies propose. If a politician says he is going to cut taxes, what he means is that he wants to limit investment in America and to ensure that our taxes get spent on American people, American people need to assert their voices by voting and participating in the political process. If we are responsible citizens, our elected leaders will have to be responsible to us. I’m afraid that Americans have lost much of their desire to be responsible citizens. I started by saying that I’d also talk of the “moral values” issue that seemingly decided the election. This is such a ridiculously explosive issue that I cannot believe it is relevant. Why do we choose our leaders based upon how likeable or what their personal beliefs are? We elect people to be public servants. When we elect people who have a moral bias, they inject personal ideology into politics. Instead of disregarding their personal beliefs and serving the public as they are elected to do, we give people a mandate to serve their own interest. The sooner we as responsible citizens stop letting politicians further personal interest and require them to serve the public as they are supposed to, the sooner America can resemble the nation of religious and cultural tolerance that our forefathers intended. This has been a spectacular and at times unfocused rant, but behind it is the idea that when it comes to politics and government, everyone needs to recognize that civilization is not about personal interest, it is about doing what is best for the most amount of people. This is shamelessly utilitarian, but for politics at least, I feel it is a good ethic to follow.So go on, listen and talk.Kevin Chauncey Avery