Nancy Folbre, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, decided to run the numbers on the taxes we pay… in reverse! She explains what she found in her Economix blog post, “Tax Payback Year“.
According to her estimates, which do not include the indirect benefits we all realize from facilities dedicated to the common good, such as roads, national defense, sanitation, and law enforcement, the average American receives $208,552.00 in direct benefits between the day of their birth to age 21. After that, Folbre assumes that Mr. and Ms average begin paying back their debt to taxpayers by becoming taxpayers themselves. Assuming 3% interest on the 21 year loan, citizen average fulfills his or her obligation after about 17 years of gainful, full-time employment. We can assume that amounts paid out after that are applied to the substantial costs incurred by taxpayers in taking care of those of us who reach old age.
Outraged taxpayers just don’t get it, and their naive protests and political machinations only obstruct efforts to improve the system that operates below the threshold of their childlike awareness. Try to imagine what your world would be like without the services and facilities paid for by your taxes. Try to imagine if the only amenities available to us were granted or withheld by private entrepreneurs who only do what is profitable.
