Anti-tax tea parties
“Tea party” tax protests have been in the news all week. “Taxed Enough Already,” protesters declare, with the tea bags used to symbolize anger at government, especially the bank bailouts. But will anything come of it?
If those protesters sincerely seek to cut government, they ought to endorse Citizen Dividends.
When every citizen has a guaranteed basic income, hundreds of programs, even whole agencies and departments, will become unnecessary.
No more bailouts for Wall Street. No more subsidies to big corporations. We’ll be able to cut or eliminate various welfare programs for individuals – without harming current beneficiaries of those programs. This is a conservative, anti-government approach that ought to appeal equally to liberals.
The anti-tax, anti-government protesters won’t get very far unless they also present some specific positive demand. They have to be for something, not just against stuff. Getting them to endorse Citizen Dividends won’t be easy, because of the knee-jerk objection that it’s a big government program, but it’s important to try. Those who are serious about cutting government will, let us hope, see that this one program will let us eliminate hundreds of others. Plus, this one program, because it will be so big and universal, will be much more transparent and accountable than the hundreds of smaller programs it replaces. If they really want to cut government, this is the way to do it.
A second set of knee-jerk objections is that some of the money will go to the poor and undeserving, to the lazy, alcoholics, drug addicts. One answer is that it’s a matter of human decency and dignity to care for everyone. Read the Bible, old Testament or new. When everyone has an income for food and shelter at least, and that income is guaranteed and unconditional, it will be a lot easier to address people’s psychological and spiritual needs.
The next time there are anti-tax protests, it would be good to attend, even if they don’t serve any tea, and to use that opportunity to encourage the protesters to support basic income.
Steven Shafarman
Tags: ordinary Americans, patriotism, populism, tax reform
April 19th, 2009 at 4:45 am
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