Here's Your Bill

Years ago I bought a van to transport our family of 6. It cost more than I had on hand, so I financed it. But making payments could get tedious, so I made a couple of special arrangements. I arranged it at work so that the automatic deposit of my paycheck would include $100 in a special account at the credit union that financed me, and then I arranged it so that the credit union automatically took the payment out of that account. Bingo! The entire transaction essentially became invisible to me. We got used to living off of $100 less than before and we never missed a payment because we never had to think about it. Nice.

It sounds simple, but when you think about it there is a certain insidious side effect. I never really felt the sting of paying for that vehicle. I never had to intentionally save up half the payment from one paycheck and the other half from the other paycheck. I never received a bill. I never had to write a check to cover that bill. So while it made it easy for me, I also never felt the weight. That missed "sensation" made it easier to obligate myself again because, "Hey, that was relatively painless! What's the big deal?!" Older and wiser now, I'm not entirely sure that making indebtedness and the sting of payment "comfortable" is a good thing. In fact, the more painful it is, the less likely I am to do it. And, in all honesty, being out of debt is a far better thing than being in deep, "painless" debt.

The government has figured out this principle as well. From all I've read, if you added up all the taxes, withholdings, fees, penalties, and the like that the government takes from the average American, for every $100 you earn, you only get to keep $50. (Actually, the calculations I saw said something like $51.) That is, between Federal income taxes and state income taxes and sales taxes and social security taxes and Medicare taxes and property taxes and fuel taxes and marriage license taxes and real estate taxes and school taxes and unemployment taxes and telephone access taxes and Workers Compensation taxes and vehicle registration taxes and ... well, you get the idea ... we don't get to take home anything remotely close to what we earned. Now, I've talked to those who say, "I don't mind taxes. It's the price of civilization." (I suspect they're loosely quoting Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. who said, "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.") Maybe, but at what point does civilization become too expensive to afford? Well, we don't get to ask that question because the government doesn't let us see the bill. Like my "painless" exercise with the van, they make the payments invisible. Take out some here. Take out some there. "Hey, you got a paycheck! What's the problem? The price of gas too high? Well, it's the oil companies' fault! Nothing at all to do with the something like 42 cents per gallon you're paying us! Blame it on big oil!" And they calmly and coolly take half your paycheck behind hidden taxes and fees so you never really see it go.

I wonder what would happen if they stopped that process? I wonder what would happen if, instead of deductions and hidden taxes and fees, they simply sent us a bill every month? I wonder how long we would tolerate it if we actually received an itemized list of taxes and fees due this month (and next month ad infinitum)? How soon would the tax revolt begin then? I remember years ago a joke was going around about how the IRS planned to simplify the tax forms. "Line 1: Enter the amount you made. Line 2: Send it in." Yeah, funny. Except that the reality is too close to the punchline for me to laugh.