Who really benefits from tax breaks?

Who are the people continually harping on “tax breaks?” Who benefits most from tax breaks? The loudmouths who have the time to promote tax breaks come mostly from corporate executives and their hirelings in think tanks.

These hustlers and professional lobbyists promote individualism, the virtues of the old-fashioned cowboy philosophy. This is princely advice from the thrones in their counting houses. They see only accumulation as the goal of living. Tax breaks for show-offs. The majority of working people benefit from taxes. We get more from cooperating with the group, from volume purchases. The tens of dollars a year the average worker saves means little compared to the tens of thousands the corporate executive would receive. They are happy to hear the think tank and ivory tower pundits raising the blood pressure of the rabble. But most of us need to question: Who is doing the talking? It is true? Follow the money. What do they get out of the hue and cry about taxes?

Do we want safe drinking water, sewage treatment and clean air? Do we value a few dollars saved from taxes more than snow-cleared paved roads and health care? Have we been trained like slavering dogs to the dinner bell? The media loves to ring the bell and watch us twitch with excitement. One of the surest catch phrases is “tax breaks.” The same servants of business constantly harp on unthinking consumption: “buy, buy, and buy. If you cannot afford to buy, we have a credit plan for you.” They get us coming and going.

The premise: whatever you waste on overconsumption, you can save on taxes. Keep drinking and smoking, you don’t need hospitals and ambulances, not yet. Hospitals and health care are only for sick people, right? (Said the grasshopper.)

Don Ryane

Lethbridge