"Who cares if the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire? I'm not one of them, so as long as MY tax cut remains in place, why should I care? It's nothing to me." This, understandably, is the attitude of most middle-class Americans. I get it. But what is the attitude of the 43% of American wage-earners who pay no federal income taxes at all?
Do they care if the rich get soaked? Nope. (See the above.) Would they care if the tax rates for middle-class tax-payers went up? Nope. If they're not paying, they don't care who does. And since they're not paying, why should they care how tax money is being spent? They have no skin in the game.
Do you think that it is desirable that so many Americans should be disincentivized from caring about how tax money is spent? Let's recall the advice of Deep Throat: Follow The Money. That's how you know where the Federal Government is going. Unless the government is spending YOUR money, you don't care where it comes from, and you don't care where it goes.
This is why all Americans need to pay income taxes, even if just a little bit: It makes you care, it makes you pay attention.
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