An oped calls for getting rid of the word taxes and replacing it with the word dues. Why? Well, the word taxes seems punitive, whereas dues suggests “obligation and duty.”
Now we come to the civics text sermon: “we thrive because of the schools and transit systems and 10,000 other services that exist only because we have joined together.”
That’s right, were it not for taxes, pardon me, dues, we would all be as dumb as chickens and would just turn around in circles because we would have no system of transit. Oh, and 10,000 other things would be wrong with the world, such as the horrible prospect of no war in Iraq and no bailouts of investment banks. Who can count all the ways we would suffer?
