Taxes Essay, Research Paper

Taxes: A Necessity For Everyone

Imagine not having to pay taxes. Many of us dream about what we d do with that solid chunk of money that gets sent away to the government. We don t exactly know where that solid chunk of our earnings goes. What we do know is that it can t go exactly where we want it to. I don t support NATO. Why does a whopping twenty percent of my taxes go towards the military? There aren t any fires anymore. I ll hire my own firefighters. What s a person to do? Thoreau says don t pay the taxes if you don t agree with them. However the truth of the matter is, it is one s civil duty to pay taxes.

Henry David Thoreau was living in America during a period of slavery and the Mexican War, both of which he strongly disapproved of. It crushed him to think that his hard-earned money would be used to buy weapons to kill people, or support a government that approves of slavery. He believed that the only way he could express his dissaproval was to simply not pay the taxes. By this method he was content in the fact that he was in no way approving or funding two issues that his morals conflicted with. Thoreau believed that if one s morals, the very code that they lived by, did not agree with any part of the government s workings it was not only his right, but his duty to disobey and rebel against these workings. He says that man cannot waste away his life serving his country and still live fully and that one should be a man (living by his own morals) before a subject (living by the morals of a government.)

It can be assumed that any citizen in the whole United States has some issue with the government. Even more importantly, many live with the conscience that their money funds a judgment of our government that their morals do not support. Should all of them refuse to pay taxes as Thoreau preached?

What would our country be like if society did as Thoreau said? For example, when state taxes are collected the money is sent to the government of that state. A portion of that money is distributed to the police force. Without money to pay police officers, the results would be unthinkable. Without police officers, there would be chaos. Stores would be looted, people would be robbed, and organized crime would run free and rampant. There would be no one to stop bank robberies, shootings, and rapists. And if, by some chance they were caught and stopped, who would punish them? Imagine walking down the street and seeing a helpless man being mugged as he leaves the ATM machine. You run over and try to stop the criminal but there s too many of them. You wake up next to the old man just as broke as he is. The next time you see it happen, perhaps an old lady being robbed of her groceries, you know better than to try and help. There s no one else you can get help from and you know it will only end up the same as before, so you watch painfully, waiting until it is over and then go over to her for comfort. Keep in mind that this is only one small example of what would happen if taxes were not dutifully paid. The police is only a small fraction of the government s infrastructure that would collapse.

Thoreau does have a point. When taxes are paid our money may go towards something that we do not feel right contributing to. However, what he fails to recognize is that when citizens seize to pay taxes, they are chopping the artery that funds the rest of the government also. It is important to keep in mind that many of those factions one does approve of, and not only approve of, but require. There are literally thousands of divisions of government that depend on the commonwealth s taxes to function. Without the taxes they require, all of these sections will crumble, and our government will be destroyed. Society requires a level of organization to allow man to live fully. By paying taxes we are securing protection in society for our children, their future generations and ourselves. We must think of ourselves as one community working together, and without the support of enough people, it will fall apart, resulting in chaos and dehumanization. Therefore everyone must support it by paying taxes.