I lost my temper the other day. I am usually a very steady Eddie. I don’t get excited much., don’t yell and scream or wear my emotions on my sleeve. But the other day I completely lost it. A red faced, blood pressure raised, spittle flying, tirade. What made it even more amazing was that I was yelling at a friend. (Though I’m not sure he continues to consider me his friend after my outburst.)
The reason for my anger?
Corporate income taxes.
My friend – I’ll call him Fred – and I were on the return trip from picking up some groceries for a soup kitchen where we both volunteer. I mentioned something about how I thought it shameful that Corporations should be treated as people. He replied: “Corporate taxes are regressive.”
At first I thought, “huh?” This statement was so far out in left field it demanded a comment but I held my tongue saying simply “Don’t go there, Fred.”
He continued. “Corporate taxes are totally regressive. There shouldn’t be any income tax on corporations.”
“Have you any idea how much money corporations in this country make?” I asked.
“America has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. There shouldn’t be any taxes on corporations at all.”
“If they’re not taxed, who’s going to pay for the roads and bridges that they use?” I asked.
He ignored my comment. “When corporations are taxed, they just pass the cost on to consumer.”
“You’re against all taxes?”, I said.
“No. There should only be taxes on sales. Then people wouldn’t buy so much crap they didn’t need.”
In an instant, I was pulled through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole into a surreal land where every statement of mine was not answered except by another pat Quasi-Libertarian talking point. I felt like I was arguing with an Ayn Rand doll with a string in her back that when pulled spouted inanities like “Let the market decide.”
In the end Fred wound up like a broken record, answering every question of mine with the statement “You’re getting too excited. You shouldn’t get so excited.” Which of course infuriated me even more. Before I knew it, I was yelling and screaming at the top of my lungs.
It really upset me. Here was a guy, a friend of mine, who had spent the last several months volunteering his time once a week to help cook a meal for a group of homeless people, many of whom have trouble raising bus fare, and he’s spouting off about how the solution is to allow wealthy corporations like Exxon-Mobile and Walmart, to pay less taxes, and make even more money! How could he witness the plight of people with nothing to eat week after week and advocate giving more money to wealthy shareholders of profitable corporations. It was too much for me, like being forced to ride in a car with Rush Limbaugh – not the radio, the actual guy – with no way to get him to shut up.
In the week since it happened, I have played the conversation over and over in my mind. I have struggled with different ways I could have handled the situation better. But what it boils down to is this: I believe the problems we face in this country today stem from the fact that too few people are willing to engage in true debate, the kind where you come in with an open mind and unbiased opinions that are not set in stone. The kind of discussion where doubt is allowed.
I would have been happy to discuss Fred’s ideas on tax policy calmly, if he had answered even one of the questions I posed. But he never did. He just spouted platitude after platitude and then professed suprise when I got angry. When I watch hungry people shuffle into the soup kitchen week after week, people who have no job, no healthcare, and many who don’t even have homes, I am disgusted. I am disgusted by the fact that the United States, the wealthiest nation on earth, can’t seem to come up with a governmental system that keeps people from living on the streets and starving. I am disgusted that we continue to put blind faith in an economic system (capitalism) that produced these homeless people in the first place. And most importantly I am disgusted that we allow corporations like Exxon-Mobile to make obscene profits while people in our own country go hungry. If I thought for a moment that it would help the population of the soup kitchen where I work, I would be the first to consider the idea of lowering corporate taxes. But the Walmarts of the world don’t give any of their profits to the poor now. Does anyone out there truly think that lowering their taxes will cause them to be more generous in the future?
Maybe they would. but I, for one, doubt it. I doubt it very much.
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