Daniel Wu

“This year’s the first year I’ll be making enough to pay taxes,” I thought to myself on Christmas morning, pontificating about how I’ll be spending over half of my measly graduate student stipend on Boston’s crazy rent. As I slipped into the living room for breakfast, my mom hugged me and told me again how happy she was that I was home for the holidays. Then she handed me a card. On the cover was a pig wearing a Santa hat that anthropocentrically smiled at me.

“Why don’t you have to pay taxes?” I grumbled to myself. “You’re just a stupid pig.”

But the pig’s smug smile made me think. As someone who values thrift and accountability, and whose family is struggling in the recession, I felt the hesitation that comes along with sending a portion of my hard-earned cash to Uncle Sam. I had little faith that it was going to priorities I felt were important. For instance, over 50% of my tax dollars go to paying interest on military debt and wars across the world, which is triple the combined amount of Russia, China, and the so-called Axis of Evil. I could only imagine towering profits earned by this war-ready industry. To make things worse, due to tax loopholes, well-resourced corporations and people who could afford crafty tax accountants could have a lower tax rate than mine.   

To be frank, our current discourse around taxes doesn’t alleviate my apprehension. Most commentators focus on the divide between the rich and everyone else. From the right, commentators repeat the “no new taxes” mantra, while committing social services to liposuction. Want to raise taxes on millionaires? That’s class warfare—not to mention job destruction. From the left, the frame on taxes is a mouthful. Tax cuts for the wealthy contribute to growing inequality. In fact, as Paul Krugman states, the super wealthy do not create jobs, but exacerbate risk “that was mostly borne not by the wheeler-dealers themselves but either by naïve investors or by taxpayers, who ended up holding the bag when it all went wrong.” The wealthy (aka the 1%) prey on the public (aka the 99%). Taxes? It’s justice and redistribution.

But even though I was apprehensive about taxes, as a civic-minded individual, I knew that my tax dollars were a necessary pillar of the American Dream—if and only if they were used appropriately. So, I propose that we talk and think about taxes differently. Instead of focusing only on the divide between the rich and everyone else, we must also ask, “What should we use our taxes for?” Here’s one answer: Our taxes must revitalize our communities and promote the equality of opportunity. We must invest in our cities and neighborhoods; our housing, transit, food and water quality, schools, health, and job innovation. Currently, only a measly 6% of my taxes go to such initiatives. What a shame. I want my money to go into skilled planning and foresight into these priorities.

We are ignoring one of the nation’s largest and most invisible regressive taxes: cost of living. Housing, transit, and food consume 57% of the average American’s income, and 72% if you make less than $50,000. We must find ways to invest our tax dollars that reduces the onerous costs. Public investments in mass transit make transportation more affordable for American families. Investments in affordable—and even public—housing keep housing costs down for everyone by increasing the supply. Many Americans can barely keep up with the monthly bills, not to mention saving for a child’s college education. By making our neighborhoods more affordable and accessible, we can help families invest in themselves.

 How do we pay for this investment? Let’s keep the nation’s wealthiest—the supposed “job creators”—honest. Our tax code must link the futures of both the rich and poor. “We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,” Martin Luther King Jr. once pointed out, “tied together into a single garment of destiny.” It’s time for those that have made tremendous fortunes in the American economy to uphold their tremendous responsibility as our nation’s supposed job creators. Instead of simply raising corporate taxes, I propose we link corporate tax rates to a national job quality index. The index compiles not only unemployment rates, but also its wages, job security, and work-life balance. If the job quality goes down, corporate tax rates go up and vice versa. 

 Let’s move from if to how. We must put a sound investment into our nation’s future opportunities onto our New Years Resolutions.