We should increase taxes!

Progressive Taxes?


In case you haven’t noticed, the economy is having severe problems. Businesses are closing or reducing workforces. There are two side effects of this trend that are mostly overlooked by the majority of people.
First, with many people out of work the tax base falls drastically. Local and state governments, already strapped by voter demands for reduced taxes, find it impossible to meet the costs of services. Services get cut to make budgets balance. The services that get cut first are those that have the least voter support. These same services are aimed at the people who most need them. The result is that more people find themselves without health services and housing support. People with treatable mental health issues loose their support and end up on the street.
Second, the people most likely to loose their jobs are, for the most part, the people who are barely making a living. They are not likely to have savings to fall back on or to pay for health insurance. They then provide additional load on services that are already being cut.
This current situation will continue to be painful and there is little hope that the state of affairs is going to turn around quickly. We must make an extra effort to support charities to help our citizens get through this mess.
What we need to understand is the reasons why we have taxes and government. If we were all equally talented and skilled, there would be little variation in incomes across the range of employees. In fact there are people who possess the skills or abilities of managers, the ambition or drive of entrepreneurs, or the talents of teachers. The person who has worked faithfully on an assembly line for 10 years (at $10.00) suddenly finds he is jobless though no fault of his own. He has minimal education and his pay rate has provided no margin for savings. He needs the government services to tide him over and help him prepare for a new job. Without some support, he becomes another homeless statistic – and a drain on society.
If, while the economy was in growth mode, we had provided a small tax increase to set aside a buffer fund, the government services would be able to weather the economic downturn without reducing services. The economic recovery just might happen sooner with fewer people loosing income. A tax – based fund is a good idea, in spite of what bean counters say. Bean counters do not know how to assign value to humanity.
One analogy that will be understandable to electrically knowledgeable people is the filter capacitor in a DC power supply. Without the capacitor (the buffer fund) the output (government services) varies greatly. The load on the power supply (the human condition of society) is degraded. With the capacitor in place the output is stable and the load does not degrade.
Please stop demanding reduced taxes just because your child has to drive a Chevy instead of a Porsche or she won’t get to go to Princeton. Allow the government to provide for the poor and the result will be an improvement in society over the long run.