COLUMN: Collection plate contribution

From Roberto Mantaro Samaniego's, "Kill the Octopus," Fall '98 From Roberto Mantaro Samaniego's, "Kill the Octopus," Fall '98Neither Easter nor Eid al-Adha nor Passover bring together as many people throughout the U.S. as does April 15. Through sweat, blood and carpal tunnel syndrome we earn our daily bread. And each year at this time, we celebrate by joyously depositing our tithes in the government collection plate. There are a few, however, who will not join us in celebration: the rich with good accountants, good accountants, criminals and those with no income. The rest of us will try to get around paying taxes by claiming whatever exemptions we find justifiable. We know that government activity benefits us all to varying degrees, but we still to do as much as possible -- within the complicated bounds of the Law -- to keep every last cent of our incomes. In the words of economist John Maynard Keynes, "the avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward." And so we concentrate on the practical problem of how to get the most out of the tax system, without considering the rather less practical ethics of taxes and income redistribution. When it comes down to it, just how much should you pay in taxes? How much did you actually benefit this year from government activity? The United States is a nation that values work -- earnings are considered a reflection of one's worth as a member of the great economic machine. By this standard, there is no particular reason why incomes should be taxed differentially -- unless we apply a measure of compassion to the less productive or the less fortunate, the beneficiaries being the poor and the unlucky. On the other hand, government's main function is to keep "the system" running by maintaining law and order, enforcing contracts, etc. Those who have gained the most from this regular maintenance are -- of course -- the most wealthy. Also, taxes are sometimes used to encourage certain socially desirable activities and forms of investment, such as education, long-term accounts and child care. This kind of "incentive" taxation is the source of many of the twists and turns in the labyrinthine US tax code. And government works in mysterious ways. In the unlikely (and happy) event that Starbucks or Barnes & Noble go bust, nobody will suggest supporting their employees in any special way. On the other hand, tobacco growers were promised last week by President Clinton that they would be sheltered from any reduction in demand for their product. The standards according to which government grace is disbursed are clearly distorted by specific political considerations -- after all, regardless of the underlying motives, politics is the only way to set tax codes. Perhaps you were among the lucky beneficiaries this year. Even if you weren't, you paid. Taxes might be less objectionable (and tax forms more complicated) if -- in addition to the W-2, the 1040NR(EZ) and the 6478 (Credit for Alcohol used as Fuel) -- there were a separate form in which we could choose how our taxes were spent. "Check the appropriate box if you would like your taxes to (a) repair I-95 (b) buy half a toilet seat for the US Army (c) pay a park ranger in Yellowstone (d) fund the White House Easter egg roll..." Life would be rather different. But it might also be worse. At least now, even if you can't decide what is done with your tax payments, many government services benefit everybody by their mere existence, and cannot be paid for by their direct users. For several years now it's been politically fashionable to decry the wastefulness of government as compared to the market. On April 15, these sentiments are voiced most passionately. However, you cannot sensibly debate the roles and risks of government vs. private activity without first considering how they interrelate. The Pepsi in your hand was brought to you along a federally-built road. The tobacco your boss smokes is cheapened by federal subsidies to farmers. Your Guess jeans would be rather more expensive if the federal government enforced anti-child labor protocols on the Asian countries that manufacture them. And so on. So, spare a little thought today for the question of how much you "deserve" to pay in taxes (unless you live in a small cabin on a Montana hillside, whiling away your autarkic days assembling pipe-bombs, the answer is not 0 percent). A successful polity is one that strikes a coherent balance between government and private activity. A dignified polity is one whose policies impose a lower bound on the misfortunes its citizens must tolerate. These are difficult propositions when the motto of April 15 is "Every Man for Himself."