“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Benjamin Franklin’s classic aphorism does not only ring true as a testment to certainty. It is also the sense of gloom it implies that has made it pass the test of time.
Paired with death, taxation becomes something that causes grief and mourning. As the financial year comes to an end and as we head deeper into this election campaign, the issue of taxes gains a more prominent place in the public discourse and the word itself dominates the rhetoric, always associated with something unpleasant. Politicians themselves are loath to admit raising taxes, which are seen as a burden, a necessary evil, the downside of being a citizen.
In fact, interestingly enough, the word ‘citizen’ itself is seldom heard – it appears to have been replaced, at some point, by the word ‘taxpayer’. We’re all ‘taxpayers’, carrying on our backs those who ‘rort’ the system, leaving us with the bill. Nobody likes bills, nobody likes to pay, and especially nobody likes to be left with the bill for other people’s expenses, which is what the dominant rhetoric implies: that this society is comprised of responsible, well-meaning tax-payers who dig deep in their pockets and give out their hard-earned money to reckless politicians and entitled bludgers.
Yet there’s more to taxation than this. Taxation is the lifeblood of society and this is something that all political talk fails to remind us. There is a redistributive function in taxation, as it is the best way for all citizens to contribute to the community for the benefit of everyone. Taxation means agreeing to share some of your accumulated wealth with the community.
In the most effective method of wealth redistribution, each member contributes according to their means, in order to create better conditions for all. Access to better healthcare and education, housing and a source of income for the underprivileged, anything that strengthens the social fabric and eases the effect of social inequality, is actually funded through taxpayers’ contributions. A conscientious citizen would not see taxes as a burden, but as a privilege, the most tangible action of engaged citizenship that our society has come up with.
There is a reason people don’t talk about taxes like that. The mere mention of the words ‘redistribution of wealth’ is enough to cause a fit to a large part of the public sphere. In a society where the market is god, wealth is not something to be redistributed, but treasured and talk about taxes is only welcome if it implies lowering them. Under this narrative, a taxpayer is someone who welcomes the idea of paying less on taxes, but is expected to pay more for education, health, retirement, transport, and everything else otherwise paid by their tax money.
And yet, the redistribution of wealth is taking place everyday, as part of our dominant culture of consumerism. Only this time, it is the redistribution of wealth from those who have less towards those who have more. The best example of this kind of redistribution is what happens at a supermarket, when an employee receives a paycheck and then goes on to spend it on groceries, thus returning part of the salary back to the employer’s pockets.
On a wider scale, this is what happens to everyone. We’re encouraged to shop in order to satisfy our needs – be it our actual needs or fabricated ones – and keep the economy going, but in the long run, that means that the larger part of our accumulated wealth ends up in the vaults of the major players in the market: conglomerates, chain retailers, multinationals. And as it happens, a large number of them pay no taxes at all. But God forbid if anyone alerts taxpayers on this kind of rorting the system.