Posted on 01/23/2005 10:39:12 AM PST by metesky
| High taxes help enhance Maine's quality of life Saturday, January 22, 2005 - Bangor Daily News |
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A short while back an article appeared in the Bangor Daily News, the main focus of which was Maine's high taxes. The context was the question of the business climate, of where Maine stands among the states in terms of the desirability of opening a business or doing business here. Buried in the article were some intriguing statistics of a very different nature that deserve to be considered in the light of the issues of taxes and tax relief. The article reported that Maine was third from the top in the entire country in the ratio of people moving into the state as opposed to moving away. It also mentioned that the state scored very high in "quality of life" ratings. It seems to me that here in Bangor values like community, compassion, decency - social responsibility of all citizens for all citizens - have a high place among the moral values most important to the community. What I want to suggest is that there is a connection between the high tax burden up here and those values, and the things that make Maine such a good place to live, make people want to move here. High in the "quality of life" ratings for Maine is the low crime rate. The 19 homicides in the entire state in 2004 is a recent striking indicator. In that area, though not there alone, is a clear connection to the issue of taxes. Surely the low crime rate has in part to do with the social services up here, the so-called safety net. There is a direct relation between crimes against people and property and the material conditions of those in our society who have least. Taxes pay for things that are of crucial benefit to everyone living here. The values and beliefs and behaviors of the residents of a place are affected by the material conditions endured by everyone living there. The opposite is also true: the values, the moral and ethical beliefs of people in a place are, in a democracy, of crucial importance as to how good and effective the safety net will be. I just moved back to Maine, after living for 32 years in a red state - Oklahoma. There, the spending on social services and education is very low, as compared with other states. Oklahoma ranks among the highest in the nation on several indicators of social problems and low quality of life - high rates of teen pregnancy, domestic violence, school drop outs, high rate of homicide and other violent crime, even tobacco smoking-related illness and death. As in Maine, Oklahomans always hear from the media that they are overtaxed, but by most measures the tax burden there is well below national averages - as is the hourly wage rate for commonly held jobs, retail workers in general, fast food workers. The anti-taxes, anti-government ideology is so strong that almost all Americans feel they pay too much in taxes. In addition to such ideology, it is obvious why people struggling to get by in a tough economy would look at taxes as almost a literal pain. But while it may not quite be true to say "you get what you pay for," it seems evident that much of what gets paid for by taxes benefits everyone, makes crucial differences in our quality of life. That such direct, material matters can not be separated from what are called "moral values." Let me end with one more example: One of the most striking things I've noticed moving to Bangor from Oklahoma has to do with housing, living conditions for the poor. As you get closer to downtown on Bangor's main arterial streets, usually literally going down the hills where most of Bangor's residential districts have been located for 150 years, the big old homes are a bit less well-kept, and the several electric meters on exterior walls show how many apartments now exist in what were once single family residences. These homes are a little run-down, compared to the houses that are still single-family, higher on the hills. But they are really quite well kept up, the streets are not trashy, and all in all almost all of old Bangor seems like a good, decent, safe place to live. Contrast Oklahoma City, Okla., where the slum districts run for miles, again, mainly old houses of which the original builders must have been proud, but now the blight and decay is horrific. Vast areas of the city are dangerous and depressing, heart breaking, very hard on the soul. I am not arguing that you can't find isolated examples of that in Bangor, but by and large it does not exist as it does in Oklahoma City or many other red state regions. These are very complex issues, growing out of the entirety of individual and social existence in a given place. And the relation between moral values and material practices and conditions is also complex. The lines of cause and effect are numerous and tangled, and often the flow goes both ways. But as one of those movers to Maine which places us so high in that category, I am glad that Maine as a state, as a society, has chosen as it has to demand from its citizens the resources to enable it to care as much as is possible for everyone's needs. Certainly, some of the taxes I pay are wasted or used inefficiently. How could it be otherwise? A lot of what I pay goes to help people, to make this a better place to live. Seeking always to lower taxes may be good for the "business climate," but we should think long and hard before we allow the erosion of tax-supported endeavors that have their source in our "better selves," the impulses of sympathy and mutual aid which make up the very bedrock of democracy. David Gross, a resident of Bangor, is a retired University of Oklahoma professor of English and a 1960 graduate of Orono High School.
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| Bangor Publishing Company www.bangornews.com/ |
Considering some of the places I've been in Maine, they need to jack up taxes 50% in order for this to be true.
Well then, even HIGHER taxes should make the quality of life even better, right?
Here's an idea whose time has come, eh?
And if we pay 100% to the state life will be perfect.
The only ones Main taxpayers "enhance" are Clinton's Somali population
Sounds like a Marxist heaven. We'll see how long that lasts.
From the 2000 census:
White 96.9
Black .5
American
Indian .6
Asian .7
Hispanic .7
Not very diverse!!!!!
He's glad the state is demanding money from us. Isn't that special?
Only the Bangor Daily News would give a retired English professor a forum to bloviate on economics.
I'll also note that California ranks above Maine in taxation, yet is far worse in terms of crime, poverty, infant mortality, etc. If high taxes are the answer, this place ought to be paradise.
Doesn't add up to 100%. What are the rest of them?
Oh, and he thinks Bruce Springsteen is a writer.
This essay argues that traditionally the humanities have made claim to freedom but been in fact a part of the dominant order, contributing to its domination. I then argue that social science alternatives are at least as dangerous and complicit. I conclude by describing the ways certain writers, especially John Steinbeck and Bruce Springsteen, can be used as the basis for practice within the humanities that can lay claim to be part of a progressive project.
First of all, Bangor has about 30,000 people compared to half a million in OKC (the OKC metro area has 1.25 million people, the population of the entire state of Maine!)
Second, if the author doesn't think there are slums here, he's never gone to far off the main road. Our slums are more spread out and have longer driveways.
Third, our population is nowhere near as diverse as OKC's. Bangor is about 99 44/100% white, we have some "Native Americans", some blacks and they're not gang bangers, they're guys that came up to play ball at UMO, looked around and said to themselves, "This ain't Bed-Sty (or where ever), I'm staying here." A big time here is "Hockey Night in Canada" on the CBC (Yes, it's on our cable).
Interesting stats...must be tough to find a good Chinese or Mexican restaurant up there.
The Professor has had the good fortune to get in on the ground floor of a "spend yourself rich" scam. He will do OK if he doesn't outlive it. Like an individual with a healthy credit rating who qualifies for a mittful of credit cards, a state can expand services, raise taxes, borrow on its full faith and credit and provide all things for all people. But this serendipitous state of affairs cannot last forever. Eventually, a flood of bills comes due and, along with the flood of bills, comes decreased ability to meet them. New York City is no stranger to this pickle. The socialist paradise of New Zealand is a fine example. Certain counties in California are no strangers to this situation. As in any other pyramid sceme, the first ones in can do fine but Heaven help the ones stuck at the bottom. Imagine a situation, familiar to many in the Rust Belt, where your home, representing your life savings, is so heavily embonded that you can't sell it for more than peanuts. Imagine, also, an enormous gang of freeloaders relocating in your community in order to take advantage of its tax provided benefits. None for me, thanks.
It seems to me that here in Bangor values like community, compassion, decency - social responsibility of all citizens for all citizens - have a high place among the moral values most important to the community. What I want to suggest is that there is a connection between the high tax burden up here and those values, and the things that make Maine such a good place to live, make people want to move here.
David Gross, a resident of Bangor, is a retired University of Oklahoma professor of English and a 1960 graduate of Orono High School.
Other than making the observation that taking this person's logic to its natural conclusion, 100% taxes would create paradise, I will let his words speak for themselves.
Personally, I can thing of a dozen explanations why his conclusion, although quite "PC" is totally wrong.
I should add that the country is better off that he is no longer brainwashing children.
Maine's low crime and poverty stats are a result of its cold temperatures, just as North Dakota comes in first on educational achievement year after year. Figure it out.
For some reason which I have yet to fathom, the Bangor area is overrun with Chinese, Thai and Pakistani restaurants.
I think it might have happened when the Miracle Whip pendulum swung the other way.
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