We try to do too much through taxation
It seems like only after a tax hike do we ever think of a basic fact: all government payouts, ranging from the most noble cause to the "what were they thinking of?" endowments, come from our own pockets.
State budget preparation time, traumatic for many, serves as an additional useful reminder of something else frequently overlooked the rest of the year: almost every society has more needs than resources. That's Economics 101.
The difficulty we're having covering the unnaturalized, underpaid, unemployed, underemployed, uninsured, et. al., suggests we try to do too much via taxing.
Who among the needy do we need to slight? Or do we try to cover everyone in want, and break the middle class in the attempt?
Tough choices for our politicians. Or as economist John Kenneth Galbraith once put it, the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. You hope that ours will distinguish.
Tom Gregg
Niles