Will Rice pushes back against the specious argument that paying down our national debt should come from charity instead of reform
To suggest that voluntary donations to the US Treasury are a viable alternative to a more equitable tax system, one must be ignorant of the difference between charity and taxes, or at least pretend to be. This argument also demonstrates an ignorance of the difference between individual and communal action. Charity and taxation, both indispensable components of a civilized society, represent very different principles and scales of action. A cynical conflation of the two does an injustice to them both.
Charity is good for the world and good for the soul. It springs from personal conviction and can achieve great ends, especially from the power of example. But charity by its very nature is capricious. Certain favored causes gain, while others equally or more deserving languish.
In a democratic republic such as ours, taxation and the public investment it funds represent, however imperfectly, the collective decision of the populace. As in a family, club or organization, once a course of action is agreed upon, every member is expected to contribute to its success according to individual ability, not individual choice.
Moreover, the capacity of the two processes — charity, and tax-supported public spending — are of entirely different magnitudes. The assets of the world’s largest charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — the entire assets, mind you, not the merely the annual income they produce — would fund the federal government for a grand total of three days. Achieving big and important things requires public investment; the tax system that pays for it is only stable and reliable if it is fair.
Wealthy people who advocate for higher taxes on themselves and people like them, but abstain from making voluntary contributions to help retire the federal debt, are being perfectly consistent. Their aim is an improved system of taxation in which everyone takes an appropriate part, not haphazard, insufficient acts of charity that fall entirely to the most generous. The real hypocrites are the critics who pretend not to understand the difference between taxes and charity.
Perhaps your story will be similar to that Cathy Bettoney, who writes that she is comfortable financially but worried about our country's future. Or perhaps your story will be more like Dylan Moore's, who is going to college right now because of the Pell Grant, and knows that investment in our future means providing all Americans with the opportunity to succeed. We have come together to advocate for tax reform because we know that a system that benefits the wealthy at the expense of our economy is unfair, unstable and unsustainable.
