My Uncle Joe was the finest human being I have ever known. He was a World War II vet who landed in Normandy, fought the Battle of the Bulge, and ended up in Okinawa waiting to invade Japan. He once told me that it was his patriotic duty and he was proud to pay his taxes. You don’t hear that said much anymore.  

On a basic level, no democratic government can succeed for very long unless every citizen pays their fare share of the cost. Uncle Joe said, “If you want a government, you have to pay for it.” Only a government can provide for a national defense, build roads and bridges, manage our electrical grid, water and sewer systems and provide our local law enforcement. 

If you have enough money you can build your own roads, create your own power station, hire private security guards and build your own rocket to Mars. Of course, if you lived in the mountains and had a secure defended perimeter, your own well and generator, you could survive. But for the vast majority of citizens, just paying the rent is a big deal. 

Is there waste and corruption? Since human beings are involved, someone is going to figure out how to manipulate the system. In a democratic government, it is up to the voters to elect representatives who can be trusted to spend our money wisely. We have not chosen well lately.  

For the most part, government can operate much more efficiently because the profit motive is eliminated. But sometimes it costs more, because the purpose of government is to provide a service to its citizens, a service that the private sector cannot or will not provide because they can’t make a profit. 

Are Social Security and Medicare Socialist programs? Of course they are. Before Social Security and Medicare were created, being old in America was almost guaranteed to mean a life of poverty and limited medical care for most citizens. Our tax dollars are spent on hundreds of similar programs to help all citizens meet their basic needs. So by definition they are all social programs. Our government is a blend of capitalist principles and social programs, as is every advanced free democratic country on the planet. 

In America anyone can and should question how our money is spent. But to question the need for a democratically elected government is a step to one-man rule or dictatorship. Grover Norquist, a Republican strategist, has famously said, “My goal is to cut government in half in 25 years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” The water in the bathtub is rising. 

Louis Vitale 

Franklin