Taxes = Dues

What are taxes anyway?  People always talk about how we "owe" taxes to the government.

To use the word "owe" though implies that the government has provided a product or service that we must pay them back for.  In truth, the government does no such thing.

At it's most basic, the government is a big club.  It's those of us who want to live and work together with something special, something different in mind.

Let's call it the "America Club".

Some folks got together and made a group that let people be themselves.  No one tells each other what to be, how to live their lives, etc...  Kind of like creating a hippy commune without the hippies, let's call it a "colony".

This America Club creates some basic membership rules and sets up some guidelines for making sure everything gets done and rules are followed, etc...

In order to make sure that the members interests are served, they hire some folks  to keep things running.  Answer phones, take messages, In other words, employees of the members to handle the business of the association.

So then the members decided they want certain things to happen and certain rules enforced and have some things built for the use of the members.  If they wanted to have all this stuff done though, everyone was going to have to start paying membership dues.

The America Club staff would take those membership dues and pay themselves a salary determined by the club members, a Board of Officers was created to oversee the work of the staff.  They also would use those membership dues to make those things happen the members said they wanted to happen.

We call those membership dues "taxes".

It's more a matter of , if you're going to be a club member, every member has to pay their annual dues.

If you are late on paying your dues, or you don't have the money to pay your dues, things can be worked out, but if we want to keep all those things members wanted built or services put in place, then all the members need to pay their membership dues.

Now, the America Club started out as a "everybody come on down" kind of club, then moved into a "by invitation only" club.  The longer the club has gone on, we saw members having kids and being made "members for life" right off the bat.

We told the kids they would fit in under their parents membership until they were old enough to work, then they had to pay their own membership dues.

It's still an "invitation only" club but there have been lot's of kids born and times have been tough, making it hard for all these members to pay their dues on time, if at all.

There are problems with the system and how late and unpaid dues are handled to be sure.  Overall though, people still like being  in the club.  Membership has it's privileges after all.

We  have issues with who gets to be on the board.  Who has influence, etc...

One important thing to remember is that the staff works for the whole club, all the members, not just the officers or those who make the biggest donations.  The membership dues are owed by all.

Taxes are not "owed" because the government is doing us a service or providing us a product.  They are not doing something out of the kindness of their heart.  They are doing what they are told to do and the money they use to do those things is not their money, it is the members money.