Taxes are Power

Taxes are Power



Sometimes things are so obvious and well understood that we forget the importance of them. This thought occurred to me while enduring the continuous political season we call modern living here in the good ole USA during which Politicians trot out the perennial silly talk of reducing taxes while increasing benefits for all. The enduring truth we all know and continue to forget, while listening to this Flim Flam, is that Taxes are Power! More Taxes equals more power, less Taxes equals less Power so there is no way on this beautiful blue Planet that taxes are really going to be reduced because the one thing that is as certain as gravity is that Politicians crave power! I hasten to point out that I did not use the moniker Flim Flam inadvisably when talking about Politicians promising to reduce taxes while increasing benefits for all because Flimflammers can only Flim Flam those who think they can get something for nothing. Reducing taxes while increasing benefits for all sure does sound like getting something for nothing, doesn’t it? Perhaps we all have been conditioned by a lifetime of advertising nonsense that promotes the notion “We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you,” so getting something for nothing really does make sense when it’s the always the other guy that gets cheated. I feel like the child that naively points out to the conditioned adults that, Wow, the Emperor is naked as a Jaybird when I feel the necessity of saying, Brothers and Sisters, the other guy is always us! We all must surely forget that we are the “other guy” because the Politician that promises to reduce taxes and raise benefits for all is always the one who get elected even though I know our Mothers taught us with waving finger and squinted eye, “Boy, listen to your Mother, you really can’t get something for nothing.” Perhaps we still need our Moms standing beside us with her waving finger fanning our troubled brow when we scribble our mark beside the name of the current Flim Flam Politician. All of this begs the question, why do Politicians do what they do? Because they get elected when they do it. So the truth must surely be and what we also continuously forget is, Politicians crave power like an addict craves narcotics and unlike Moa Tse-Tung who reckoned that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, Politicians in a Democracy realize that political power grows out of the fiat of taxes. And so we continue to buy in to the nonsense that taxes are a good thing and all law abiding and enlightened citizens should do their patriotic duty and support every “worthwhile” tax while secretly hoping that it is always the “other guy” that is going to get cheated. Sorry Mom.