Thoughts about Taxes

There's no good reason we cannot have health care for all.
Nearly all first world countries already have it. It's not a new thing.
And in our country, we have an example of how a collective system can work fairly well in providing a safety net for our citizens. It's called Social Security. It's not perfect. But the vast majority of citizens in our country would not give it up.
"Yeah, but that's different. We contributed to that," many say.
What do you think tax dollars are? Tax dollars are our contribution to society to provide the services and support programs needed in our communities, state and federal government.
The difference between Social Security tax and other taxes we see coming out of our checks, is that it's earmarked. Most of the rest of the taxes we pay are blindly contributed, with the exception of school taxes. And we grumble. Some want to eliminate taxes all together. That makes no sense.
When everyone is contributing a fair share, the burdens of society are fairly shared. Look at your school tax if you have property. Is what you pay enough to educate ONE child for a year. Unless you own significant property, it's not likely. We're sharing that financial burden. We're also sharing the benefits of an educated population. And we should all be concerned with the level of quality education that is provided. A poorly educated community is a problematic community.
Taxes are unpopular but we need to change our perspective about the reason we have taxes and focus on what our tax dollars are doing. Yes, we should talk to our representatives about what projects and programs are most important to us and expect them to be careful stewards of our tax dollars.
We need to think of our taxes as collective solutions to societal needs. And so, back to health care. There is no good reason we cannot have health care for all. Yes, it would be a tax and hopefully earmarked exactly the way Social Security is earmarked. If shared fairly, the majority of our citizens would actually end up paying less than they currently do for health insurance. Why? Because everyone is contributing. Why? Because we can eliminate a great deal of the administrative costs in our health care system. We can manage costs more effectively across the board, including drug costs.
It just makes sense. That's why nearly every first world country already does it. Hanging onto a health care model that is not meeting the needs of most of our population is not going to make America great.
Our current attitude toward taxes and government isn't going to make us great either. We need to stop accepting that greed and corruption are "just the way it is" and begin looking at taxes and government as our means for collective solutions to societal issues. We're already participating with our tax dollars. It's time to get in the game with our heads.