Death to the idealogues! Those Marxist, terrorist demons of the Democratic party! They wish to destroy the democracy our forefathers had envisioned with pipe-dreamed socialist programs, like socialized health care and strict business regulation.
But there are far worse pipe-dreams that have a voice far louder than those of liberal Democrats: the idea of small government and the elimination of taxes.
There is nothing more unrealistic that a people could ask of their government than to completely eliminate taxes. But that is just the mantra of the Tea Party movement. An ideal world where nobody has to pay taxes. But consider, for a minute, what this world would actually look like.
Consider the services that our government provides us, on a local, state, and national level. Our local governments plow our streets when it snows, collects our garbage, provides emergency service in the form of police, fire departments, and medical assistance, and provides and runs our public education systems. Our state governments maintain our roads and highways, establish higher learning facilities, welfare for our poor, and develop transportation and information infrastructure. Our national government provides single payer health care for our elderly and poor, assistance during times of natural disaster, a military force to protect us, and regulates our businesses to ensure the protection of consumers. And the American people expect these services from their government.
But in this world the Tea Party envisions where nobody pays taxes, how are these services that the people expect and demand to be paid for? How, in this land of small government and corporate oligarchies, will these basic services be covered? Well, obviously, the hard-working American people don't have time to just do these things, so they would have to hire somebody to do it. They would need consultants to develop school curriculum and private military companies to police our streets and laborers to plow our streets and so on and so forth. The corporate oligarchies that rule the land would provide all these services... at a price.
So, for a nominal fee, employees of private companies will come and take care of all of the services that our government currently takes care of. One would pay these fees monthly or perhaps on a yearly basis I suppose. Maybe one could I hire an accountant to help pay these bills and pay them all once a year by a given date.
That sounds an awful lot like taxes. Except without any hope for a "break", save for maybe a coupon.
When you consider the effects of eliminating taxes outside of the initial idea of, "Hey, I won't have to pay taxes anymore", it doesn't sound appealing. Anyone that takes the time to consider the math behind the consequences of eliminating taxes would realize the harsh reality of such a government. But isn't that the essence of what an idealogue is? One that is given to fanciful ideas or theories? There's no room for truth or rational thought for these demented idealists. Because if there was, they would know that as long as people rightfully expect their government to take care of these most basic services (and maybe more), taxes will be an unavoidable part of civilized society.
Because nothing in this world is certain but death and taxes. And anyone that says otherwise is the worst kind of idealogue. One with tea bags stapled to their hat.
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