Demonizing Taxes, Heightening Inequality

By Laura Flanders
GRITtv
April 19, 2011

http://grittv.org/2011/04/18/the-f-word-demonizing-taxes-heightening-inequality/

Yesterday was Tax Day in the US, and that's almost
universally greeted with groans and complaints. That tax
word's been so effectively demonized that it may be there's
no coming back. Is it time for a new word?

Some research by Duke University's Dan Ariely suggests it
might be.

Ariely's study showed that Americans actually want a more
equitable society-in fact, they think they have one.  When
asked to identify their homeland from a list of nations
described only by their level of equality--a majority of
those polled picked Sweden, thinking it was the US. When
asked to create their ideal society, Democrats, Republicans,
men and women, the rich and the poor all created a
distribution of wealth that is much more equal than the one
we've got.

All that "social mobility, low inequality" stuff--Americans
love it. They just don't have it. In fact, social mobility
here's been shrivelling, as the wealth gap's been opening up.

There are only a few ways to get that more equal
distribution: government investment (benefits and services)
corporate action (paying people more) or redistribution:
taking from each according to their means, to help the whole.
We call that tax.

Yet according to Ariely, the very same people who expressed
an ardent wish for an equal society have an highly averse
reaction to the word tax.  Why, he wondered, recently, to
National Public Radio.

It's not so hard to figure out. Day in day out, when you hear
taxes mentioned, what's the context? Social citizenship?
Tools of an equal society? Or is it rather all about how
heavy the burden is, how overtaxed Americans are. The Taxman,
the IRS--the first public workers our media teach us to hate.

There are taxes to hate--taxes that go to give a blank check
to the military, or tax credits for corporations that export
American jobs. But the truth is, taxes on the rich have done
nothing but fall since the Reagan years. And inequality's
only gotten bigger.

What's the money media's stake in all this? It's hardly
hidden. Remember that GE tax refund for $3.2 billion? The co-
owner of NBC and MSNBC isn't alone either. Time Warner and
News Corp, owners of CNN and Fox, are also on a list of the
biggest corporate tax avoiders.

When you hear that news story about how tax day is no fun,
remember that you're actually paying more than the company
behind the news. And remember who it was who taught you to
hate taxes. And if you come up with a new word, let us know?

[The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the
host of GRITtv and editor of At The Tea Party, out now from
OR Books. GRITtv broadcasts weekdays on DISH Network and
DIRECTv, on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and
TheNation.com. Follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter and be
GRITtv's friend on Facebook.]

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