One of the many great examples in George Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant! is the ingeniously evil phrase “tax relief.” The phrase subliminally puts forward an entire constellation of dubious ideas: Taxes are a harsh burden. People who try to relieve you of that burden are good, and people who stand in the way of your relief are bad. The “relief” framing implicitly justifies doing whatever you need to do to get out of paying taxes: Under-report your income, construct elaborate legal facades, move your corporate headquarters to Bermuda – whatever. It’s an unfair burden; you need relief.
The Left needs a new frame for taxes. If the government is some strange Other, then taxes are a kind of theft. But if the government really belongs to us, then taxes just move our money from one account to another. From our personal accounts we can buy personal goods; from our common account we can buy common goods. If that notion sounds strange, think about stockholders and corporations. When a corporation retains its earnings for future investment rather than paying them out as dividends, the stockholders don’t scream about theft. The corporation just owns that money for them; as long as it manages the money well, the stockholders are happy.
Taxes are your fair share of the expense of keeping the country going. And a good country is worth paying for. People who try to get out of paying taxes are denigrating our country. They’re saying that America is not worth paying for. They are unpatriotic.
It’s all the more appalling that the people who try hardest not to pay taxes are the ones who benefit most from living and doing business in America – the rich and their big corporations. How many billionaires come from Bangladesh? How many people want to carry the Croatian Express card? A progressive tax system recognizes the obvious fact that the rich gain the most from America; they should pay the most to keep it going.
Return to 10 Ideas for 2008 by Doug Muder