Community Commentary:

Over the last number of years, starting mostly with the rise of Ronald Reagan as president, a new religion, or rather a cult, has risen and overwhelmed our country. The mantra of this religion is “no taxes,” or “cut taxes,” or “no new taxes.” This mantra has been promoted primarily by the so-called “conservative Republicans” and some Libertarians, but has also been adopted by many in the general public — the latter having been brainwashed by the endless repetition, and never questioning the real reasons for its promotion.

The claim is that the concept of taxes implies that the government essentially steals the money of honest, hardworking men and women, and then squanders it on frivolous enterprises or on the dreaded “bureaucrats.”

And herein lie several contradictions and concepts. To begin with, to my knowledge nobody likes to pay taxes. Our prehistoric ancestors most probably did not pay taxes. But much has happened since the prehistoric times, empires came and disappeared, but importantly, democracy was created by the ancient Greeks.

The basic premise of democracy established that all the citizens of a state have rights as they have obligations to the society that they live in. The rights include the ability to elect their leaders, to participate in major decisions, such as war, the creation of public works, and to be taken care of when in need. The obligations of the citizens included serving the state in governing, the military and contributing to the society based on their ability, through taxes. The taxes were used to take care of the society, in the construction and maintaining of public works the public benefit, and the military.

Of course, taxes were also imposed in non-democratic organized states and societies, albeit without offering to the subjects of these societies many or any rights.

The concept of taxes has been a fact of life with organized societies for thousands of years, with the difference being that the contributions in a democracy have been based on the ability of the citizens to pay, while in other societies, on the whims of the despots ruling these societies. This means that the wealthy in a democracy are expected to contribute more and the poor less. As a matter of fact, in ancient Greece, the wealthy were expected and obligated to serve the State pro bono.