See, once in a while I realize that my taxes actually pay for something that I, personally, can benefit from. Not "I" as in "well-meaning, decent citizens who believe in the public good" but "I" as in "Poppy Buxom." I mean, I'm all in favor of taxes, and I gladly hand bushels of money to any government that asks. In the Buxom household, the general attitude is: "Here, help yourself!" And the village of Newtopia, the city of Chicago, the town of New Castle, New Hampshire, the State of Illinois, and the federal government do just that.
It's as though these governmental bodies disguise themselves as envelopes and go out trick-or-treating via the U. S. Mail, and my husband and I gush over how cute they are and hand them a check. And that's the end of the transaction. Except that, from time to time, I find myself wondering: is that all there is to paying taxes? I mean, fun's fun, and all that, but somehow ... I don't know ... I start to wonder what's the point of it all.
But then, once in a while, it hits me. I'll see a public school, or a highway construction project, or a park, or a standing army, and I'll swell with pride in the realization that there are my tax dollars at work.
Lately I've been all agog over the public libraries. I realize that I helped pay for this large municipal building with insufficient parking--yet when I enter it, I'm the one acting like a kid on Halloween, grabbing handfuls of loot. "Free books! Who knew?"
Yesterday I came home with more Aubrey/Maturing stories, because I'm addicted. This one
and the next one, because I needed to grab it before someone else did. Because these are my tax dollars at work, people. Mine! Not yours!
I also got Joe Epstein's latest, because he's a pal of my father-in-law's, and it's all in the family, but if I hate it? It won't matter; it was free. My tax dollars paid for it!
While I was at it, I grabbed the following for my viewing pleasure
I could have gotten them from Netflix, but now I can save my Netflix fees for a movie I can't get for free.
And last, because I'm such a geek, I got
So just watch out, you overpriced web designers; I'm on to your little game. My tax dollars and I are going to whip your scrawny, CSS-coding butts.
No comments:
Post a Comment