An Open Letter to My Uncle

I have family members who position themselves, like so many conservatives do, as over-taxed and under appreciated, cheated by government,  burdened to carry a lazy and corrupt society forward.

Though I love and deeply respect these family members, I’ve never sympathized with this argument and often find myself at a loss to articulate exactly why it is that I disagree.  After all, I am a liberal educator.  Of course I believe in taxes. Of course, I don’t think poor people are lazy.  But how could I express this?

But recently, at a wedding, I got into this exact argument again.  This time, I found myself finally able to respond to this age old complaint.

I did so by merging a lot of what I believed with the framework offered by Jordan Peterson. I’ll chat more about Peterson in another post. But for now, here it is:  An Open Letter to My Uncle or Why We Should (Happily) Pay Taxes.

My main point regarding our conversation:

Since you are in a position of elite competency and since you are a very powerful person in terms of your sphere of influence (you know highly competent people with even greater spheres of influence) you bear a greater responsibility for the quality and truthfulness of your opinions.

If you are cynical about the state of society, so will many others feel that same cynicism.  Their logic being: “Well, X is a really successful guy, smart too, and if he thinks the country is going to shit, then it must be.”

This increased moral responsibility you bear, by the way, mirrors exactly the increased financial and tax burden that you bear.  You are a senior member of our society, one who works in the heart of the most powerful economic system the world has known.  Of course you give more!  Congratulations!  Because as you may have noticed how much you can give away freely (either in time or money) is the ultimate sign of success.

As you move up the hierarchy, especially in capitalist countries, wealthy people can institute change faster and to greater effect.  At the extreme, the Bill Gates’ of the world are massively powerful and can take on profound problems like Malaria or Poverty, problems totally out of the scope of a middle class family.

Of course, a middle class family can make important contributions to society as well, but only in relation to their place in the hierarchy.  Paying taxes is but one form of this contribution, and taxes are, as we know, progressive with income.

But the key idea is: at every level of society, we have a responsibility to shape the world as we would have it become.  If you speak negativity, then negativity is what you will create.

Conservatives bemoan taxes and government, failing to see that 1) WE (and they) are the government  and  2) They are the beneficiary of so many layers of infrastructure that have come out of the payment of taxes.

And as for corruption, yes it is a serious problem and under the current administration far more out in the open.  But still, compared to many countries, our level of corruption is quite low.  In fact, this society has created a vast incentive system to make sure that our level of corruption does not interfere with our productivity.

But it could!  It could if people like yourself become cynical.  If our collective social sentiment is “the world is shit,” then sure enough we will make it shit.  How shitty do you think we could make it?  How about as shitty as Syria?  How about as shitty as Libya?  There is no end to how shitty it can become.

So good uncle, whom I love and respect, enjoy the sacred burden society has put on you. Give it away proudly.

This is one of the greatest countries in the world and it could be SO MUCH BETTER but only with your help.

your favorite nephew,