Tax Day was yesterday for most of us. Tomorrow in states that celebrate Patriot’s Day. Some people organize their lives around tax avoidance. Not a great way to organize your life.
Felix Frankfurter quoted his friend, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: “Taxes are the price we pay for civilized society.” Several years ago at this time of year, a friend of mine, Saul Rubin, sadly no longer with us, wrote a letter to the Boston Globe. He cited Holmes comment.
Should we scold people who avoid taxes? Should we criticize politicians who cut taxes for the wealthy? Should we criticize the wealthy who believe they can buy themselves a sufficiently civilized society with their own riches?
We should be afraid of them. They weaken government where it should be strong. They would take civilization away from us.
There are examples in the world of weak government. There are places where the only source of a civilized life is your own wealth. Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, the Sudans. The stability of the social order is tenuous.
Let’s ensure that the United States is a civilized place for everyone. Welcome the opportunity to pay your taxes. Welcome the opportunity to insist that the wealth pay taxes, too.