This is about why I like to pay my taxes. There are plenty of things about taxes that I don’t like, but on the whole, I like paying them because it’s my contribution to something I believe in.
The United States of America is hardly a perfect nation. It’s got a problematic history and a problematic present. Many have been victims of the injustices committed by the US and its representatives. All the same, the US is something I believe in, particularly the principles espoused in the U.S. Constitution.
My belief in the Constitution is, in fact, so extreme, that I’m inclined to consider people who rail against taxes to be un-American.
These positions stem from understanding the value system espoused by the Constitution.
The preamble to the Constitution makes clear the purposes and the value system being invoked and created:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
What is this saying? Well, the main idea of the sentence is “We’re establishing this constitution to provide certain outcomes that we deem desirable.” It expresses the values that the government is trying to establish:
1. Union
2. Justice
3. Domestic Tranquility
4. Common Defense
5. General Welfare
and
6. Secure the Blessings of Liberty for current and future generations
Firstly, it should be noted that this is a liberal document in the classic sense of the term “liberal”: It is concerned with ensuring the liberty of those whom it presumes to govern. It is also “liberal” in the common meaning of “open to change.” It is distinctly not conservative (i.e., hoping to maintain and establish old forms of government).
Second, it should be noted that it is a fundamentally cooperative document: “We the People,” it says. It is designed to set up a cooperative community: the people are going to work together to achieve the stated aims. As I have discussed in previous posts, cooperation often includes compromise. Compromise made to promote some desired value is not a restriction of freedom, as those who rail against taxes often complain, it is a choice to put in the necessary contribution to make the cooperative system work.
For there to be a “perfect union” in which “We the people” work together, there must be people who choose to work together, and that means people choosing to contribute to the common effort, including a willingness to compromise.
The Constitution is not just saying the we think that liberty, justice, etc. are good, it is saying that we—the people working together—are going to accede to a coherent set of rules that will guide (and limit) our actions. The framers of the Constitution knew that compromise was necessary, and the document sets up a system for negotiating compromises.
The United States is a community. For that community to work, effort and contribution are required. Taxes are one form of contribution. That people would be happy to take the benefits of living in the US, and would claim to love the United States and its freedoms, and then would rail against paying taxes is, I think, selfish entitlement. The system only works if we the people contribute to its operation, even when we don’t necessarily like how the system works.
People who live in the US, who talk about how great America is, and who complain that they shouldn’t have to pay taxes, are people who seem to believe that they should get the benefits of living in this cooperative society without making contributions or compromise. Such people, in my opinion, are un-American, and frankly, if they don’t like the way America works, they should move to another country.
To be part of a community working together to reach a goal means making compromises. Taxes are part of the compromise of living in, and benefiting from, the community defined and governed by the Constitution of the United States of America.
I have slightly more sympathy for people who don’t want to pay taxes because they don’t like how their tax dollars are being spent—that, at least, doesn’t represent a repudiation of the basic community and the need to contribute to the community. But still—compromise is necessary, and paying taxes is a necessary compromise if we, the people of the United States of America, want to do things like establish Justice, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.
I believe in the project and ideals defined in the US Constitution’s preamble and Bill of Rights. I don’t like the compromise made by the original framers that allowed slavery to continue, but that language has been amended. The general project is still worthy, despite the problems. But believing in that project, and trying to realize that project means compromise, including the compromise of paying taxes. If you consider yourself a patriot of the U.S., you should be willing to make compromises to contribute to the cooperative project that is this nation.
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