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HappySqurriel on 09 October 2010
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sapphi_snake said:
HappySqurriel said:
sapphi_snake said:
NJ5 said:


Maybe, but I think it reflects even more negatively on the country, which presents itself as civilized but can't guarantee the most basic of services to its citizens. Things like setting up military bases around the world are, in practice, guaranteed by the taxes Americans pay, but such a primary thing as fire protection isn't.

Ponder on that for a while...

True, but this is mainly a reflection of the genral atitude of many Americans (who hate taxes so much that they're willing to give up on public services like fire protection).

The problem in the United States isn't that Americans are unwilling to pay taxes to provide adequate essential services, the problem is that the money collected is used to pay for so many non-essential services that core services are underfunded.  People like to blame "the military" for this, but the military is an essential service, only takes up a small portion of the federal budget, and this is a problem in state and municipal governments (which don't pay for the military).

What are these non-essential services?

I think a simpler way to look at this is what are the essential services that are provided by the government. On a federal level the government is responsible for national security, foreign relations, interstate relations, trade and a portion of the criminal justice/penal system. Any spending item that doesn't line-up with these responsibilities is not essential, because it doesn't have to be provided by the federal government. Similarly, state and municipal government have core responsibilities and any spending not related to these responsibilities is non-essential; and most emergency services (like the fire department) would fall into the responsibility of the state or municipal government.

When you start looking into social spending (as an example) it doesn't line-up with any responsibility the governments do (or should) have; and when you analyze the outcomes of most of this spending and understand that no-one benefits from this in the long run it is difficult to argue that it is something that should continue to exist.