I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out why people get so upset about paying taxes. Sure, I get grumpy about doing the paperwork, because I believe the system is far more complicated than it needs to be, but I have never complained about the actual giving of money to the government, even when I had to pay in and it was a struggle to pay it.

I like having roads, firemen, policemen, a military, schools, courts, and all those other things our taxes pay for. Sometimes I don’t like how much the government is spending on this, that, or the other thing, but if we all didn’t pay taxes, we wouldn’t have these things. It wouldn’t be much of a civilization without them.

It’s not just income taxes either. Sales taxes of all sorts and property taxes as well go to things we all collectively need and use, so even though I don’t have kids in the school system, no one has ever heard me complain about paying taxes to support them. One of those snot-nosed kids over at the nearby elementary school may one day be wiping my nose in a nursing home, and I’d like them to not be dumb as a stone while doing it.

So it astounds me how many people making so much more than we are completely despise paying any taxes at all. I’m pretty sure if I was earning $250,000 a year, I would still not be complaining about paying taxes. To me, it’s a part of making sure we have a safe, free, healthy, and educated society, which is something I am more than willing to help pay to have.