Nathaniel

Shockey

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April 7, 2008

Freedom Works, But Can We Ever Rely on Ourselves Again?

I don’t know what everyone else is planning on doing with their whopping three to six Benjamins this tax season, but I plan on paying off bills – medical bills, to be more specific. Here’s to stimulating the economy.

It’s odd. One year, the IRS is hunting me down, insisting that I owe them thousands of dollars. Now, they are genuinely sorry about that entire hullabaloo a year ago because, really, what’s a grand or two between friends? As a matter of fact, here, just take it back. They don’t need it anyway.

Or here’s an idea. How about I keep my money, and you keep yours? It all reeks of big government to me, anyway.

I spent an hour on the phone a few days ago with someone from the IRS. For at least 45 minutes, I was on hold listening to a very scratchy version of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik while some woman was doing “research.” I’m sure she hates her job, but I’m even surer that I hate it more. The IRS costs something like a bajillion dollars a year to operate, and it severely pains me to think that my time on hold contributed to that ghastly number.

It was probably time to start seriously considering ideas such as the flat tax and the FairTax a long time ago. So let’s get on with it.

True conservatism preaches small government and lower taxes, and the last eight years seem to have been anything but. And now we’re confronted by presidential candidates who would seek increased taxes and/or varying forms of universal health care – or to paraphrase, an even bigger government than our current colossus.

This matters – a lot, actually – and it’s time we really think about it.

Ultimately, there are two warring philosophies. One says that people are not fit to handle their money responsibly, and if left to their own devices, the economy will go straight to pot, followed promptly by the country in general. It is the philosophy of black and white that says some people have it and others just don’t.

Frankly, any form of “insurance” is a smaller faction of this ideology, and while there is obviously comfort found in insurance, there is also much to be lost. We are still giving money to those who can allegedly handle it more effectively than ourselves. We are still spending millions of dollars to employ thousands of people in the exact same way tax dollars pay for the IRS, money that could hardly be considered even indirectly helpful to anyone with real problems.

The other philosophy says there is enough wisdom and good in people to outweigh the bad, so that when power is placed in the hands of the people, the economy will naturally flourish, and thus, so will the country. It is the philosophy that lumps humanity together in a struggle that is both corporate and individual.

If forced to save, people will. In the same way, people will go to astounding lengths to survive if, for example, their plane crashes in the jungle. And when tragedy strikes at home, most people will figure out how to survive.

But obviously, when so much money is tangled up in these gargantuan institutions meant to provide us security, medical costs skyrocket as do costs for fixing any other type of disaster, such as car accidents, destroyed homes, etc. It really isn’t that complicated.

Despite what we tend to hear, the truth is that the bigger the government becomes, the more everything costs. And the higher the costs, the bigger the gap between those who can afford things and those who can’t. That is, unless we put all the responsibility in the hands of a small few so that costs don’t matter anymore, just obedience. It is essentially the antithesis of freedom.

Despite both personal failures and those I witness around me, I have faith in mankind’s ability to be responsible and good. Most people, when given a position of responsibility, tend to rise to the challenge. Even though being irresponsible can feel pretty good, being responsible feels even better. It’s hard not to be cynical nowadays, and anyone who doesn’t have moments of cynicism is probably smoking something strong. But the belief in the potential good of humanity goes hand in hand with the original American dream of freedom.

The problem is that, over time, taxes, the IRS, health care costs and such have become hugely inflated (not compared to certain other countries’ standards, but compared to what is necessary), and I’m afraid whatever remnant still believes in the right philosophy of hope seriously doubts the practicality of reversing our country’s present course.

It will not be easy to eventually achieve a cheaper, more effective system than the IRS. It will be impossibly hard to rely less on insurance agencies and more on ourselves.

The truth is, it’s a long road home.

But let’s not cop out. Let’s not forfeit the goodness within all of us by asking a small few to be responsible for many. Even with propaganda coming at us from all sides, telling us that only the government can heal a wounded population, let’s not lose our belief in human resilience. Let’s never give up on the beautiful yet fading hope that the only real solution to an ailing country – the least complicated and yet the most difficult – is, and has always been, freedom.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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