A College of Charleston student got increasingly vexed a few years ago during a discussion about taxes and government. He got so irritated when thinking of having to pay taxes that he eventually lashed out, telling the professor that he wasn’t much more than a liberal who wanted taxes to remain high and save the world.
The professor, nonplussed, paused and reacted, “All right then, let’s play a game. Let’s say that I’m king for a day, and I can issue an edict that you never again have to pay taxes again.”
The kid was already chomping at the bit. “But,” the professor continued, “you’ll have to live by the consequences of your decision. Want to never pay taxes again or keep the system?”
“No taxes,” the student said, a wry smirk on his face.
“Fine,” the professor said. “Now, tell me, do you like to go to the beach?”
“Of course.”
“So how are you going to get there? You can’t take the roads because taxpayer dollars and the government paid for that. You can’t use bridges because the government funded them. So you must be planning to paddle in a canoe across the harbor to get to the beach, right?
“And are you going to take something to eat or drink? Where are you going to get it, because you can’t go to the store and buy anything. If you did, you’d have to use government currency and pay a tax to get it, which you can’t do anymore, right?”
As more examples of how government impacts people drifted through the class, students started to realize how much their lives were better, in part, because of government programs and services.
From roads, bridges, schools, agricultural subsidies, regulation of commerce and a host of areas, good government does that practical stuff in our society that makes it easier to live — without having to canoe to the beach or grow food for sustenance.
In an age when social media assaults people with anti-government messages, maybe it’s time to ask this question: “Without government, how’s the quality of our lives?”
Many may realize that the funding of government through the shared burden of taxes is a cost of being a citizen in a country that provides a First World quality of life that’s a whole lot better than what settlers found 350 years ago when they landed in West Ashley to colonize South Carolina.
Life was tough in the past
Think about the number of times you hear mosquitoes buzzing in most of Charleston County. It’s probably not nearly as much as it was 25 or 50 years ago.
Why? The county government has an active abatement program to control the mosquito population.
Three hundred years ago, the humid air wasn’t as forgiving. It was thick with disease, as retired College of Charleston historian Peter McCandless wrote this year in Remarkable Charlestonians in the American Revolution:
“South Carolina was not only the wealthiest of the 13 colonies but also the unhealthiest. … Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry were notorious for deadly fevers. Malaria was a perennial danger, yellow fever a periodic one. Smallpox, dysentery and other diseases added to the grisly toll. ‘If you wish to die young, go to Carolina,’ was a common saying.”
Fast forward to the turn of the last century after two generations of post-bellum poverty. Life expectancy in America was 47 years, and was lower in the South. Today with modern medicine, better diets and a better overall quality of life — brought on in part by government programs — the overall life expectancy is 73.5 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Government works
State Sen. Sean Bennett, R-Summerville, listed several ways that government improves lives in the Palmetto State. Not only does it provide a framework of laws and property rights, but it works to keep communities safe and secure through police, fire and emergency services.
Additionally, state government works to provide K-12 and technical education to expand opportunities and ways for people to move ahead. Furthermore, it provides roads, ports and bridges “that support business and mobility,” he said.
“I don’t pretend that we are always flawless in our execution,” Bennett told the Charleston City Paper. “Nevertheless, I would sum it up this way — when government stays focused on protecting liberty, enforcing the rule of law and creating the conditions for free people and free markets to thrive, it delivers benefits that are real, though often taken for granted.”
Vincent Sheheen, a former Democratic state senator who now serves as Camden’s mayor, looked at his past experience with the state and new challenges with the town to detail real ways government makes a difference.
The state, for example, provides free 4-year-old kindergarten — “but for state government, it wouldn’t exist, and our kids need it,” he said. He also noted how South Carolina has conserved millions of acres of natural areas for everyone to enjoy, and it also offers some of the best technical education opportunities in the country.”
In his town, Camden’s government provides local police and fire protection to keep the peace and secure safety. The town also works with small businesses to help them cut through red tape. Furthermore, “city government can help make communities beautiful and enjoyable with well-thought-out planning, streetscaping, art and more.”
Ways that government works
Imagine daily life if these benefits and services didn’t exist:
EDUCATION
- K-12 public education
- Public universities
- Community colleges/technical colleges
- Federal student grants
- Public radio and television
- Libraries
TRANSPORTATION
- Paved streets and roads (even Charleston’s bumpy roads are better than dirt streets from colonial times)
- Sidewalks and gutters
- Bridges
OTHER INFRASTRUCTION
- Clean public water and sewerage, including storm drains and water-pumping stations
- Seawalls
- Modern electricity systems, which started through the government
- Communications — from commercial television, digital technology, broadband services, wireless gizmos, the Internet, email and more.
- Fuel-efficient vehicles
HEALTH CARE/POVERTY
- Vaccines
- Scientific research
- Maternal feeding programs
- Community health centers
- Teaching hospitals/research
- Social Security
- Medicaid
- Medicare
- Head start
- School feeding program
DEFENSE
- National security, including the military and National Guard
- Port security
- Airport security
- Foreign policy
- International aid programs
JUSTICE
- Rule of law
- Courts
- Law enforcement
- Civil rights protection
- Voting rights
ENVIRONMENT
- Local garbage pickup
- Local recycling
- State/national parks
- Coastal zone management and research
- Harbor dredging
- Beach renourishment
- Protection of marine mammals and fisheries
- Weather forecasting
- Disaster assistance
This list is not complete. There are countless other ways that local, state and national governments lift 21st-century Americans out of subsistence living. See if you can think of other ways that your tax dollars make life better.
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