You pay for food. You pay for fuel. You pay tolls on iconic bridges and tunnels. You pay to use resources of a country, state, or city – anyone who uses resources more often ought to pay accordingly.
This is why taxes exist. It’s not a new idea, but in the 2012 election, the purpose of city, state, and federal revenue has been not only blurred, it’s been lost.
Forget about health care and the affordable care act, forget about dividends and death taxes – anyone who uses a country’s resources more often ought to pay more to use them. Period.
How can anyone argue against that with a straight face?
It’s the same as food, and renting a space. We pay by the pound and the square foot. It’s the same thing as putting down a 2-month security deposit on an apartment, and then an extra $500 if you have a dog – if you use it, you pay for it. That’s capitalism, and if Republicans want to say that they’re capitalists, then they should should be demanding from the floor of Congress that “Businesses should be paying the United States more than they are for their use of this fine country, dang nabbit!”
Simple as that. ;)
Business taxes are a toll to use a country’s resources. If I have to do it, so you they. If they profit more from the country’s resources, then they should pay more, because they USE it more. There is taxing to encourage behavior, and taxing for use or resources. Both are legitimate.
No one screams socialism every time they enter the Lincoln Tunnel or the New Jersey Turnpike. If they live in New Jersey, but work in NYC, it’s just the cost of doing business: paying the tolls. The more I go into the city, the more I use the bridge – the resources of the land in which I live – the more I pay. Home owners deal with property taxes, and yes, when paid they can sting, but that’s why you have a road that leads to your house. That’s what maintains street lights, sidewalks, schools, and the pretty plants in the center of main street that makes you love (hopefully) where you decided to live. Most of us are willing to pay for that.
If businesses ship on via rail… part of that is not just the cost of service, but the upkeep of the rail system, the cars… the infrastructure for that piece of the puzzle that makes an economy work and hopefully thrive.
Democratic candidate from MA, Elizabeth Warren made this argument in a living room. Others have picked it up, but people still don’t seem to get it. I didn’t fully until going through the damn E-ZPass lane for the thousandth time. I could choose NOT to work in one place and live in another that requires my paying the eff’ing toll… but I made that choice so I should shut up and pay it.
Even hawks who love war were annoyed, but called the enormous “per vehicle” usage cost of driving American military equipment through Pakistan a cost of doing business (or cost of war, which is the same thing). That’s a tax we’re paying.
So why is it such an outrageous thing to ask a business who uses the infrastructure and economy of a country to pay for its use?
I use this country’s resources exponentially less than businesses do… Why am I paying more?
Go figure. But if a business isn’t willing to pay… fine… don’t let them use the roads. Don’t let them market to its people (we all pay import duty taxes to sell to people in other countries, too, right? Yeah, it’s a pain, but it’s not socialism or the end of the world as we know it… it’s BUSINESS). Why have we forgotten that?
Oh right… it’s an election year.
