Citizenship - "Paying it Forward"

One of the most fundamental traits of good citizens is that they know they are building on foundations established at great cost by others who preceded them. They have a heritage to protect and not just a future to build. Much of that framework was built by hard work, innovation, investments, solidarity, and, yes, taxes. You can’t even mention this last word in political circles without seeing the shark fins circling. Yet I think most Canadians comprehend that if the “cut and slash” types had been permitted their way following World War Two, we wouldn’t have the kind of country we enjoy today.Somehow those who see citizens and government as antithetical hijacked a productive citizen vocabulary; but I think Canadians are now aware of the dangers we are courting. They will acknowledge that you can’t support the things that government does, like caring for seniors, honouring justice, providing public education, guarding our security, and protecting the environment, and still maintain that taxes that support such essentials are bad. Yet continually we as citizens are asked to accept the premise that paying our taxes is analogous to being mugged by overbearing governments.Watching the race to the bottom south of the border has placed in bold relief how ideologues have worked for decades to establish metaphors for taxation as a burden, a load, even an affliction. That sets the stage for some bromides that offer “relief” and pave the way for a narrowed and diminished view of government. Sadly, American citizens are discovering that smaller government has led to higher unemployment, higher carbon emissions, increased education costs, and elevated bankruptcies. They have treated citizens as dupes and persuaded them that government is to blame when the true onus should have been on capitalism run amok, abusive labour practices, and, yes, government shortsightedness. We hear relentlessly how our high taxes have curtailed our economy, yet recent data has something else to say about that matter. Look at this graph from the OECD and tell me that Canada isn’t competitive.Despite the fact that there is a massive ideological message machine flooding the media concerning the need for lower taxes, it’s my belief that the dedicated citizens who care about this country are on the verge of spotting the sheer emptiness of this outlook. They are looking at taxes in a different way – as dues and not a penalty. They're not alone. Many in the corporate sector on both sides of the border are weighing in for better tax fairness. Read this to learn more.  Modern democracy requires a social and economic infrastructure and that is what taxes get us. Ironically, such infrastructure was a gift from our grandparents and parents to us – the highways, stock exchanges, national parks, settlement services, railways, ports, bridges, universities, hospitals, etc. – an endowment to us for our future adventures. All they asked was that we maintain and build upon it. We are now in danger of losing that birthright as we starve the public space of its needed revenue.We are members of gyms, YMCAs, golf courses or swimming pools, and we pay dues with little complaint. Yet they were built and paid for by previous members and are currently maintained with present dues. Their true worth is in the successful transfer of these resources from one generation to the next. Yet taxes paid don’t often result in such immediate benefits. We rarely consider the miracle of generational investment that brings water to our taps, pristine national parks, or research and development – they are often far less tangible. And what about all those things that never occurred because of sound taxation policies? Things like poisoned water, a cholera outbreak, or manifested crime on our streets, are not present realities for us because we invested in one another in times past. Those of us who remember the health crisis from polluted water in Walkerton, Ontario know what happens when we begin the process of slashing services.Author Benjamin Barber put it clearly: “The money does not belong to the government, it belongs to us. But the government belongs to us too. ‘It’ does not steal from 'us,' we pool resources so we can act on behalf of the commonweal – the weal (well-being) common to us. … Taxes are not tithes imposed by tyrants; they are self-imposed duties that permit our government to discharge our common purposes. … To cry 'Give Americans back their hard-earned tax dollars!' is a disingenuous way of saying 'To hell with establishing justice, promoting welfare and securing liberty!' It is nothing more than a cynical bribe to get people to give up on one another and to go it alone."As we dealt with numerous financial struggles in recent years, along with the governments we have elected, citizens have opted to treat the isolated injuries of a patient while at the same time forgetting to keep the blood supply going – the supposed brilliance of the individual procedures nevertheless saw us lose the patient.For today’s citizen desiring to bring their country back to democratic health this is an important lesson. We can’t maintain the equity of this country if we strip it of its public services – it simply can’t be done. Since Ronald Reagan, a significant amount of political capital has been gained by talking about how big and bad government is. The slashing began in the 1980s and continues to the present – long enough for us now to witness the growing inequities south of the border and here. We are citizens, as were those before us. They protected the future by sacrificing in the present; they merely ask that we do the same. We have a country to protect and not just our own individual pursuits. It’s my sense that more and more citizens are willing to respect that responsibility. Paying it forward is the essence of collaborative citizenship.Tomorrow: Our final post - "41,654 to 10"