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Send me to Bora Bora or freeze in the dark, you slacker!

April 01, 2010

When people start groaning under high taxes, there's always someone like Chris Bergin at Tax.com to cheer us up with something like this:

As a society, we will never be free of taxes – that is unless we all want to be bathing down by the river, catching our own dinner, and freezing to death in the dark.

Joseph Henchman at the Tax Policy Blog has the right response:

The next time Chris and the Tax Analysts want to grab drinks with the Tax Foundation crowd, and I offer to pay for a round, I fully expect everyone to run up my tab. Americans are running up the tab, in part because groups like the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) have pushed the notion that someone else can pay for all or most of government services, and that that's sustainable. (The CBPP's "rebuttal" of Tax Freedom Day, where they emphasize that most people have a lower tax burden than the average, reinforces this point.)

The solution to badly-designed social welfare programs should not be knee-jerk higher taxes, but reforms and a sustainable, broad-base/low-rate tax system that encourages economic growth and minimizes interference with individual freedom.

But what about paying for essential public services like education? Today's Des Moines Register shows how that works:

Top executives of the Iowa Association of School Boards - along with their spouses - traveled to professional conferences at resorts in Alaska, Key West, Fla., Puerto Rico, Hawaii and other locales at the expense of the taxpayer-funded organization, newly disclosed records show.

So stop complaining about paying high taxes so your taxpayer-funded overlords can vacation in Bora Bora, you ingrate. Do you want to wash clothes on a rock by the river or something?

Tags: Christopher Bergin.Joseph Henchman.tax policy.Tax Policy Blog.Tax.com.

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