Taxes are always a hot button issue. People believe that the money they earn is theirs and they do not want anyone putting their hands into their bank accounts. So every election season people protest when any talk of a tax raise might be needed. And when these talks happen, people sometimes look foolish.
For instance, here is this sign in protest:
You may be thinking - how can a government run program stay out of the government run program?
I don't know. This sort of thinking runs amok when taxes are discussed. All sort of people get irrational.
The bottom line in this post is that paying taxes is not the issue. It is that we have a growing distrust. We just do not trust others to take care of our money. We believe that we are better managers of our money than anyone else and, if given the opportunity, we could do what others do at a lower cost and faster.
It is not about taxes, it is about trust. When we do not trust our fellow persons, then we will rail against anything that forces us to trust them.
So we rail against taxes.
Members (and many times clergy) of the UMC rail against apportionments and the appointment process.
We rail against FOXNews or MSNBC.
We rail against God when things don't go a desired way.
We rail against other drivers while we ourselves are guilty of poor driving habits.
We rail against our bosses who "don't know what they are doing."
It really has very little to do with the issue(s) voiced, it has everything to do with trust. When we trust others then the level of angst goes way down.
The concern from this clergy person's stand point is that the more we are secularized the less trust is promoted between people. The more we rail against the machine of government the less trust there is. The more we think others are idiots and we are immune to irrationality the less trust there is.
For instance, here is this sign in protest:
You may be thinking - how can a government run program stay out of the government run program?
I don't know. This sort of thinking runs amok when taxes are discussed. All sort of people get irrational.
The bottom line in this post is that paying taxes is not the issue. It is that we have a growing distrust. We just do not trust others to take care of our money. We believe that we are better managers of our money than anyone else and, if given the opportunity, we could do what others do at a lower cost and faster.
It is not about taxes, it is about trust. When we do not trust our fellow persons, then we will rail against anything that forces us to trust them.
So we rail against taxes.
Members (and many times clergy) of the UMC rail against apportionments and the appointment process.
We rail against FOXNews or MSNBC.
We rail against God when things don't go a desired way.
We rail against other drivers while we ourselves are guilty of poor driving habits.
We rail against our bosses who "don't know what they are doing."
It really has very little to do with the issue(s) voiced, it has everything to do with trust. When we trust others then the level of angst goes way down.
The concern from this clergy person's stand point is that the more we are secularized the less trust is promoted between people. The more we rail against the machine of government the less trust there is. The more we think others are idiots and we are immune to irrationality the less trust there is.