Taxes

I am thankful for taxes.

No, seriously, I am.

I’m even thankful to pay them.

I know that it’s popular to be down on taxes these days, too. But I’m proud to be able to contribute to funds that help people who are unemployed feed their families, and people who can’t afford it to have health care, and people who live under tyrannical governments to not be totally slaughtered by their leaders. (Yes, I am thankful that there are thousands and thousands of people in Benghazi who are not dead, and that my tax dollars contributed to that, in some small, small way. Among other things.) I’m thankful that we pay government leaders to do things like make it illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage to sick children. I’m grateful for regulations, and for the government-imposed consequences that enforce them. None of that would be possible without taxes.

I’m also grateful for all the ways in which those tax dollars bless my life. I’m thankful for roads. (Even though my neighborhood is currently inaccessible except at the whim of construction workers.) I am thankful for police officers and the fire department. I’m thankful for my public education and the public loan funding that helped me to get a graduate degree.

I am so grateful for taxes, and to live in a country that does so many wonderful things with them.