Wednesday, March 21, 2018

not shy about taxes...

It may feel as though you're working real hard. If you are part of the vast majority of Americans you may be working very hard to make ends meet.

Conservatives say "It's your money, and you should decide how you spend it." That's a  simplistic line that resonates at the polling place.

In the wood shop, I use tools others have invented, techniques that I have learned from others, and materials that come as a gift from nature. When someone buys my work,  or commissions a new work, they set me in motion making more, and so we can take the wood shop as a microcosm of the larger word. All things are connected with all other things.

If you assume that the government is a hungry monster of evil intent, and a reflection of all the evil people who surround you that want to take your stuff, you might get angry about taxes and any effort to raise them. So these days, folks being as angry as they are, no one ever proposes a tax increase. quite the opposite is true. The accepted mantra is cut, cut, cut, and along with cut, cut, cut comes steep and relentless cuts in the services we provide for each other.

I propose a tax increase, and my proposal is based on a broader view of humanity. I watch closely, and what I've observed is that people spend a lot of time caring for and about each other. We gather together to do all kinds of things whether we get paid for it or not. My base assumption is that people are good, want to do good things (like caring for their kids) and that they sometimes need help.

If you get to know anyone in government, you would learn that almost without exception, they are caring folks just like you. Government is the tool through which caring people work to improve the lives of each other in ways that we would be incapable alone. We are each personally enriched when we assure that the needs of our fellow Americans and community members are met.

Our governments, local, state, and federal are empowered to do good and to fulfill our goals for a safe, sane and caring society only when adequate tax revenue is provided. We are talking specifically about schools, libraries, roads, health, safety, and national security, none of which would be available to us without adequate taxation. I oppose tax reductions for those who can most easily afford to pay for the security and health of our nation, those who have in turn received the largest share of benefits from the society and economy built through the enormous efforts of earlier generations and by those working right now.

Yesterday I made a wooden post card to be sold at ESSA's Incredible Edible Art Show. Various artists have been invited to make post cards to sell. My own (once again) is made of wood. I've yet to affix the stamp. This is my 3rd day of Spring Break. Yesterday we met with folks from A+ Schools to begin planning their fall Fellow's Retreat in which those who train teachers to utilize the arts in their classrooms. In the Fall Fellow's Retreat I will have the opportunity to teach Fellows to teach teachers to use woodworking in A+ schools.

Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:38 AM

    Interesting reading:
    http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2017/
    Sylvain

    ReplyDelete
  2. I quite agree that government is often viewed as the problem, even though government is the only way for common folks to wield any power. In running my own business, I see government being used as a tool by larger competitors to bludgeon small businesses with regulations that appear "common sense" on the surface.

    I also think that large corporate interests, who are using the government for their own means, also use their media outlets to sew distrust of government, thus leading common citizens to apathy and the desire to give up what little power they once held.

    ReplyDelete
  3. David,
    The wooden toy business is an example of regulation that should be rightly applied to large toy manufacturers making plastic stuff, but that should be applied more fairly to the very small scale Micro scale, wooden toy maker. For big businesses like Mattel and Hasbro to go through rigorous testing of their products is a good thing. But when a micro manufacturer uses real wood, and food safe finishes and adheres to guidelines concerning safety choking hazards, why would the same expensive testing requirements be applied?

    The problem is that big and so called "small" business writes the rules for congress, and the micro maker, or solo craftsman is purposely ignored.

    The irony is that the very small or micro businesses are the ones that offer the greatest potential for growth, not only of business but of the ideas that build the economy.

    ReplyDelete