I’m combining two posts that are related.
Rachel is talking about the recent election of Deval Patrick in Massachusetts. Someone asked a group of Asians, Latinos, Whites, and African Americans to name their biggest concerns. Education, crime, jobs, and healthcare (or some combination) was on everyone’s list. But for whites, taxes were also listed. As Rachel notes, when folks say taxes what they really mean is “we’re paying too much and want our taxes cut.”
Which brings me to my girl Tayari, who is touting a Netflix like book service. You pay them loot, tell them what books you want…they drop the books off, and then you send them back when you’re done. Great right?
Only….aren’t libraries one of the things we PAY TAXES FOR?!? I check out whatever books I want…get to keep them for a few weeks, and if they’re late i pay what? Maybe .50c per day in late fees?
What’s happened over the course of some 27 or so years–going back in the modern era to Proposition 13–is that the anti-tax movement has become the norm. We no longer believe that government can or even should provide valuable services–like libraries, good roads, and the like. The end result of this logic is something like Katrina….where people are saying with a straight face that it isn’t the role of government to protect us when catastrophic events occur. One of the reasons we’re homeschooling now is because no one believes enough in the public schools to put the money in them that they should have to do their job.
If you look at the blue vs red states and the last several presendential elections, you will discover, the war between the states is still on,states rights vs federal rights.Taxes are an expense for all but most high income whites can figure out how not to pay much tax money. The issue is not the Tax but that it might be spent to help poor people and especiality, God forbid, poor black folk. That is why, poor white southern red necks voted for Bush even though it hurts them. Their jobs are out sourced or gone, their kids are stuck in Iraq, they have poor infrastructure, scools, bridges, roads etc.They voted republican because they are afraid the democrats may try to advance the black poor, then whom could the southern red neck look down on? Come visit blackinbusiness.org
Is it that people decided they didn’t want government services, and then decided to cut taxes? Or is it that many people decided that they were paying a lot of taxes and not getting worthwhile services back?
I’d use your decision to homeschool as an example. Is the problem with Baltimore’s public school system primarily money, or primarily bad management? My impression is that big city schools spend a lot of money per pupil, but still get rotten results. If Baltimore’s schools got a 50% budget increase, would you want to send your kids back there?
I don’t recall anyone saying it wasn’t FEMA’s job to help out in a disaster too big for local authorities to handle. I do recall several people pointing out that the disaster was a good lesson about the wisdom of counting on FEMA to save you in a disaster.
when the people believed to be associated with the service are black, citizens place a much higher burden of proof on the government to show that the services are either needed or are conducted efficiently. now this may be partially because the needs are greater, particularly in the case of the public schools.
From the Archives: Taxes are good for you http://t.co/MaNx1LIP