Taxpayers provide public safety, roads, education

Published: August 10, 2012

Victor Gorin (Your Views, Aug. 5) reminded Mark Hill (Your Views, July 29) that government played a part in the success of the Hill family's plumbing business. Gorin points out the assistance given by the police, city and state roads and public teachers. Those services didn't drop out of the sky as gifts from a benevolent government. The Hills paid for them with their taxes. And since the Hills' income was probably higher than average, they were taxed at a higher rate, which means they actually paid more than their fair share. Which means we should thank the Hills and other businessmen — not the government — for those services.

The government takes our tax money and, before spending it on these services, it must withhold enough to cover the politicians, the bureaucrats and the inefficiencies. Whatever's left over goes to providing the services. If the Hills and other taxpayers used the “road” portion of their taxes to contract directly with the road builders, we'd have much better roads. A similar argument holds for education. If homeschooling parents with no formal education can teach better than professional teachers with education degrees, it gets harder and harder to feel beholden to the government.

The Big Five (public schools, Hollywood, CBS, NBC and ABC) are doing an excellent job of hiding the fact that money for all government services must first be extracted from the taxpayers.

Thank you, Mr. Hill, for our police and our roads.

Mike Jones, Oklahoma City

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