A Tax Day meditation

Half of April has passed and The Quiet Man has little to show for it except a handful of posts about basketball, beer, news, and my crotch. Pathetic. Web surfers demand new content on frequented websites, and become bored and impatient when disappointed; that’s why major newspapers like the LAT and NYT are constantly refreshing their main webpages with a rotation of stories and pictures. So for the sake of blogging, and keeping the instant gratifying crybabies appeased (not that anyone is complaining), here is a Tax Day meditation.

This year I needed to pay a combined $522 more in state and federal taxes. It was expected, and justifiable, since a small portion of my income was not taxed. I didn’t mind.

Generally, I have no problem with taxes. They are necessary for the health and wellbeing of a functioning and effective public state. I have no problem with their use for funding beneficial public institutions, infrastructure (roads, schools, libraries, public lands and parks, telecommunications, power and water supplies, etc…), a social net (providing essentials for those in need), the promotion of culture, disaster protection, law enforcement, and — I suppose — a basic defense (defense, not offense). In essence, I have no problem with taxes to promote and nurture the greater good. What I do have a problem with is the pillaging of public funds by corporate oligarchs to prop faulty, ill-managed, and greedy private sector endeavors, and the financing of a Keynesian economic system founded on perpetual fear and war. I have a problem with public funds being squandered on pork-barrel pet projects, $90 hammers, and the spoils of political office.

I am not a Tea Partier.

Look, the movement’s fury over wasteful spending is easy for me to sympathize with, as well as its vexation with politicians; I agree many of our elected representatives are greedy and corrupt caterers to special interests. However, the rest of the Tea Party “platform” is, to me, far less attractive and rational.

Here’s what I mean…

The P-C and CRG websites both featured pictures of the Tea Party inspired Tax Day protests in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids today. I browsed the galleries, just to see what was going on. Frankly, it looked a lot like a Klan rally without the gaudy hoods and tradition: a bunch of pissed off old crackers and rich people.

Aside from their reasonable beef against corporate bailouts and egoistic politicians, I don’t share in their tax acrimony. I look at taxes as an inevitable requirement of a public state; they look at taxes as an abomination and infringement of liberty. In government, I would like to see more accountability, honesty, kinship, community, fraternity, efficiency, wisdom, caution, practicality, ethics, tolerance, and common sense. Tea Partiers want to see as little government as possible, which is why the movement makes little sense to me. They love America, and whole-heartedly believe in the concept of government “for the people, by the people,” yet it seems they would gladly dismantle and privatize the institutions created by the very principles they revere. For me, Tea Partiers personify hypocrisy. They believe taxes violate their freedoms, but apparently have no problem with our multitudinous security agencies spying on us without reason or restriction. They take to the streets against wasteful and excessive government spending, but are probably just as guilty of deficit/credit spending and financial recklessness in their personal lives.

What exactly do they want? I have no clue, but I assume it’s something close to a laissez-faire free market oligarchy with a military. Zero government, zero regulation, and the little taxes there are would fund a type of homeland police and military-industrial complex. Everyone would be able to spend spend spend without the burdensome financial strain of supporting public institutions and taking care of the “lazy” and “entitled.” (Ironically, it seems many Tea Partiers don’t have jobs. I don’t know how else to explain how they can, on a Thursday, be protesting against some of the very programs they benefit from. Maybe they do work and take a sick or vacation day — benefits often afforded them by the regulation and oversight they oppose.)

To me, the Tea Party movement is all about greed and materialism. It’s all about wanting big houses, new cars, and the latest gadgets instead of top-notch public schools, social services, and infrastructure. It’s all about the personal pursuit of happiness, not the communal. It’s all about “me,” and nothing about “we.” I can’t support that.