KISS

After checking my Technorati profile, I noticed a link from a blog that I wasn’t familiar with. They quoted my Tax Freedom Day post from last week. I’m flattered.

Democracy In Action (.org) is “the first nonprofit organization providing an affordable, integrated online campaign solution for nonprofits of any size.” Cool. Sounds like my kind of group – a little politics, a little geek, non-profit type organization. Too bad their political viewpoint is skewed in the wrong direction.

Even as a member of a non-profit group that relies partially on public funding, I couldn’t ever advocate for our already overburdened tax load due to some perceived benefit for the masses, which must be their viewpoint based on the only statement in their blog entry that needs reading:

Needless to say, carping about taxes is rarely attached to any analysis of the attendant social benefits — if, for example, the country finally nationalized health care, “Tax Freedom Day” would fall quite a bit later, but nobody would be paying premiums out of their own pockets for no obvious decrease of financial “freedom”…

Groups like the Tax Foundation create metrics such as Tax Freedom Day because it boils down an incredibly complex system into something that all people can understand. Something that doesn’t require an individual to analyze federal, state, county, local, and school taxing bodies, countless “public” authorities, millions of budget lines, and more buckets of pork than Smithfield Foods can process in a lifetime. They might never know that a portion of all those taxes they’re paying is going to help out the Columbus League of Pissed Off Voters (one of DIA’s clients). Tax Freedom Day illustrates just how much of our financial freedom is lost every year to help pay for “social programs” that we didn’t realize we needed. So let’s say we federalize health care and move that date out into June. Great new benefit! Maybe we can do that with other programs as well! July for Geriatric Pensions! Fear not, social security. August for Automobile Factories run by the U.S.A.! We can make sure America keeps all those GM employees employed. September for Soup Kitchens! Stop by and get your weekly ration. One loaf of bread included with every meal. The date is just a date, after all. It really doesn’t reflect anything significant. Taxes help ALL of us. The more the better!

Then again, if we tried to push that date a little closer to January, what would all of us greedy capitalists do with the extra cash in our pockets? Enjoy the local eateries more often? Maybe buy a new car? Put a bit more away into the old savings account for retirement?

Hell, I might even bestow a bit more to my favorite non-profits.