Friday, April 16, 2010

taxes



Taxes create the kind of community that I want to live in.

~ Rev. Jennifer Hope Kottler ~

from her commentary, "You Get What You Pay For,"

in the April issue of
Sojourners


Taxes. Most of us complain about them at one time or another. I know I have. However, my tune has changed in recent years.

Ask anyone who lives (or has lived) in a country where there is no infrastructure how they feel about paying their taxes. If they now live here, chances are they will tell you that they love what they get for paying them.

Roads. Police. Fire departments. Libraries. Schools. Clean water and sewers..to name a few of the basics.

I was lucky enough to be born here. Now I choose to live here. Is it the best place on earth? Probably not, but there are a lot of places I would rather NOT live, and some of those reasons are the differences we get when we pay taxes.

I can't guarantee that I will never again complain about paying taxes. If you ask me about it, though, my complaint will likely have a lot more to do with my lack of planning than with my feeling that paying taxes is unfair.

I agree with Rev. Kottler...and Oliver Wendell Holmes:

Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes ~


4 comments:

Deb Shucka said...

Thanks for the reminder. One of the great things about living here is that we can complain freely about everything. Too often we forget we have so much to be grateful for.

Interesting how your boys look exactly the same, no matter where they choose to recline. :-)

fullsoulahead.com said...

The amount we pay reflects our abundance.

I love curb side garbage pick up.

I love paved roads.

I love flushing my toilet.

: )

Carrie Wilson Link said...

Ditto Michelle.

graceonline said...

So true.