More Money Than Brains, Part 1

We're spending how many billions of dollars for a pointless, hopeless, counter-productive war on -isms and yet we're cutting funding for education, child care, and other anti-poverty, subsistence level programs at every level of government? And after nearly five years and hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of casualties, we finally killed an alleged Al Qaeda bigwig. And we killed him good. We killed him on the morning news, we killed him again on the evening news, we made sure he suffered for fifty-two minutes before he died. If the war on terrorists can be compared to fighting cancer, let's go with this analogy. After thirty years of forcing the Middle East to chain-smoke, we were surprised to learn that she has developed lung cancer, but we were not unprepared to combat such an unexpected and treacherous foe. No, we took cancer to task by forcing the patient to smoke even more. But, lo, we are greatly surprised when the little cancer has grown into a multitude of cancers throughout the body politic. Yet now we rejoice, for we have ferreted out and destroyed a single cancer cell (and a female cancer cell and a child cancer cell along with it), and we are very proud of ourselves. And back at home, no one knows or cares that the war against the cancer-like terrorists rages on so long as the pharmaceutical companies are getting richer by the day. And we want to give huge tax breaks to the 100 wealthiest families in America because, after all, who doesn't want to inherit a billion dollars?

It has become increasingly apparent that our leaders in Washington and
Albany are unwilling or unable to make hard budget and taxation decisions.
They are mired in gridlock and back room dealing that seem choreographed
to play to the media and the campaign calendar. Our local municipalities are left holding the bag. Over the last twenty-five years, I have come to respect the work done by countless numbers of local legislators, supervisors, school board members, and the like. I have seen liberals become fiscally conservative and I have seen conservatives demonstrate (dare I say it?) compassion through the funding of human services programs, alternatives to incarceration programs, treatment and education programs, all designed to meet the changing needs of our most fragile and needy friends and neighbors. It is not, and cannot be, solely about the bottom line. A government's budget is not a business, and it is not a family budget. It is a reflection of a community's needs and priorities, and the means by which we share our collective good fortune. It is unfortunate that my County's primary income generators are as unfair and regressive as property taxes and sales taxes. It is incumbent on all of us to convince our state and federal legislators to reform the income tax programs that allow us to redistribute wealth more equitably (eventually? How about now?).

In the meantime, we must acknowledge that we are a nation, a state, and a county of great wealth (just look at the SUV's in the parking lots of the mega-stores and shopping centers that are destined to save us all by tapping into those endless consumer dollars we can't wait to spend). Most of us can afford a modest increase in federal, state, and local taxes in order to maintain the standards of our community. We should also be able to come up with ways to help those for whom such an increase would be a hardship. We should examine monthly payment plans, enhanced tax-relief programs for seniors and the disabled, and assessment breaks for the family farmers who bear a disproportionately greater share of the property tax burden.

Thorstein Veblen was right; we have become a nation of conspicuous consumption (and not in the phlegmatic Camille sense of the word - Moulin Rouge for you youngsters). He who dies with the most toys wins. Otherwise, why would we have to have so many possessions. How could we be happy with family, friends, a sense of community, a warm meal, and a roof over our collective head? We need more things. Nice little shiny things; big, fast things; things that play music, or games, or that just shut us out from any interaction with human beings. And of course, my things have to be bigger, and better, and shinier than your things. And not because I'm trying to compensate for anything, y'know, but just because my old man's a refrigerator repairman and your old man's a cotton-pickin', finger-lickin' chicken plucker.

Here's a project for the day, the week, or the month - find something you don't need. Sell it or donate it and contribute to any one of a thousand charitable causes. You'll feel better. See? There is something in it for you.