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.