My libertarian friends like to present themselves as the peace-niks, abhorring the violence of the tax man.
And
I do see this violence. I see that they have no choice but to pay their
taxes or people with guns will seize their property and/or incarcerate
them.
I also see the violence strewn throughout human
history of people hording resources and living lavishly while the masses
starve, regardless of how hard they work. This phenomenon did not stop
with modern capitalism, far from it. If it had, the “violent and oppressive” taxation,
and wage and safety regulations would never have been necessary. People fought and died for these protections because they were so desperately needed.
So, given the choice between these two forms of violence, I see a clear choice.
Oddly
enough this choice benefits those oppressed tax payers as well, as
their position at the top is never more stable than when those at the
bottom are well fed and cared for.
I must ask; why is it okay to use force to stop us from murdering each other but not to stop us from starving each other?
That
said, I believe this first type violence that the libertarian wishes to
avoid is in fact a fiction. The money they are made to pay tax on is
not theirs. Do they really think it is? Would they support the right
to pile it up and burn it? Money is produced by us, collectively, and it's value
honored by us, all of us, collectively. It is a key ingredient in a system of resource distribution. They do not strike me as being
forced to participate in this system against their will. They
participate gleefully and masterfully benefiting from it more than
anyone. They reap it's benefits, benefits never available so readily in
any other system in human history and then they complain when they have
to pay back into that same system and they call it violence. To put it another way, if you're making enough to be taxed, you're making more than has ever been possible for non aristocrats in any non-taxed system.
Do not be mistaken that I am stereotyping all
libertarian's as excessively wealthy. The above character could be any tax payer. I
am not a property owner, few people would consider me wealthy, but I am a
tax payer and I'm proud to support the social safety net.
I do have two friends who are opposed to paying
taxes because they disagree with the American military industrial
complex (as do I), but they honestly opt out. They earn so little income the tax
man wants nothing from them. They live in a one bedroom apartment. They
produce amazing low budget films, paintings, and rock and roll
recordings. They educate homeless kids. Their choice and protest strikes
me as sincere and in stark contrast to the libertarian complaining that
their home or vehicles could be taken if they choose not to pay their
taxes.
Another popular libertarian canard is the lazy,
freeloading welfare recipient. The real leisure class somehow offends
them not a bit but the statistical anomaly that is the welfare cheat is
exaggerated to represent a whole class of people.
A very important person to me got to spend her
childhood not being homeless and malnourished because her mother
had access to social programs. This mother may have made bad
decisions at a young age or may have just had terrible luck, or perhaps a
bit of each. Social programs allowed her to continue to feed her kids,
all four of whom are now self sufficient adults, while allowing her to go to
school and eventually become an amazing special education teacher who benefited
our society greatly, while also earning a living and paying back into
the system that caught her when she slipped and fell. Sorry if I end on a
personal and emotional appeal but it is personal. The people who would face starvation, and violent non-gated communities, and a lack of
opportunities are the people I love and interact with everyday, and one
of those people is me. Another of those people is my daughter. It is
personal.
But you know I wouldn't leave you wanting. Here are some lovely numbers for you:
In
2012 more than 47.8 percent of families receiving food stamp were
working (the highest ever), and only 13.2 percent were welfare
recipients with no working adults, according to the US Department of
Agriculture.
The USDA reported that, "76% of SNAP households included a child,
an elderly person, or a disabled person. These vulnerable households
receive 83% of all SNAP benefits."
Of our uninsured families,
78 percent have at least one working person in the family and 62 percent
have one or more individuals working full time.
