taxes and trust and our government

It is all about trust... generally and always in all things. Do you trust your friends, do you trust your partner, do you trust yourself... AND has their trust been tested? Has your trust been tested? Can you be trusted? How far?

Well -- trust in our government is low. Perhaps an all time low. Whatever the level of trust my point is government reflects us. If we trust in general then in general we can trust our government and what is that trust? That trust is our government will act honorably and honestly and practically and efficiently and charitably and inexpensively and sensitively and warmly and intelligently. Our government will be just like us. As far as we can be trusted that far is how far our government can be trusted. We are our government OR AT LEAST WE CAN BE! With voting turnout at seriously low levels (a terrible DROUGHT of voters) the question may be is the level of trust we have in our government a reflection of the voters or the non-voters? INTERESTING? don't you think?

The government has income and expenses. They are generally called taxes and expenditures. IF we all get what we are entitled to earn... then is the government able to earn some more money? To earn more money the government would have to earn more of our trust. One way to earn our trust is to spend wisely and once upon a time... there were terrible scandals about government spending and I think one beginning of the tax revolt (and it has been a revolution!) originated as a reaction to those scandals which I think are now well corrected.

There are other reasons for the tax revolt including poorly considering their individual self-interests. It seems that if I am a law abiding citizen why do I spend so much on police and prisons and if those expenses are very high then let me see something tangible for my money and those prisons certainly are visiable, tangible. Education and job opportunities are not tangible ways to make the individual safe in the same way prisons are tangible and immediate. And, relative to schools and education too many people may want a certain kind of education for their kids for a few years and then why should they continue to pay for the education of others? Community is very, very local in some people's minds even as the world becomes more globally linked and connected.

There are many projects which need doing as global warming is fought against and it is big government which can do this big job. We need to know what government can and will do and how it will be done so we may trust government. We need to understand how what government does will create jobs and wealth for people so that what gets spent now will eventually be paid back. The government needs to demonstrate how it will invest so it will later earn that which it spent.

While this sounds a lot like a business enterprise it is bigger than a mere business. This work is for our country and our world. It is for our towns and cities. It is for all people's everywhere. It is for the greatest community that we can imagine. It is inclusive and productive and meaningful and good. It is to help lift up all ... and it is an ideal which I think can be made real if we can trust ourselves and others.