Happy April 15!

I just finished my taxes and I want to say how Jim-dandy happy I am about the whole experience!

Actually, the only real problem I had with the whole thing was the stupid e-filing software package I bought, which required 4 hours of trying various workarounds to get it to accept my deductions. Listing the child credit as reimbursement for pain and suffering probably didn't help, but still.

I almost like paying taxes. Note I said almost. I doubt that anyone really enjoys it. Still, I get schools and roads and fire departments and police and courts and national defense and the SEC, FTC, FAA, and EPA, just to name a few of the benefits. As part of the upper-middle class, I use my share of these services, probably way more than the average poor person, so if I can help cover some of the cost, than good for all of us.

Besides, when I hear the stories about how government should run more like a business (hat tip to our first MBA president, George W. Bush, the "W" stands for "We're fucked!"), I have to laugh. Government's big and big organizations are inefficient. I've worked for Fortune 100 companies that make our friends in the Washington bureaucracy look like libertarian entrepreneurs. I've worked with the military, the one type of government that conservatives love, and wouldn't suggest using that as a role model for how to run things. On the other hand, I've worked with small nonprofits and local units of government that are amazingly efficient. Government, private enterprise, in my experience people aren't very different. In the end, the further away one gets from one's revenue source, the easier it is to take it for granted.

That's not really the point, however. The point is, things cost money. Navies and hospitals and education and everything else that we get from government cost money. They cost a whole bunch of money, more than I can really claim to grasp.

But that's alright, because I'm only paying a tiny little share. A statistically insignificant piece, from everybody's perspective but my own. And that's alright too, because when all those statistically insignificant contributions get put together, we've not only built a warship or an emergency room or a high school, we've built a civilization. And while that's sometimes an ugly process, and sometimes a painful one, in the end it's one I feel pretty good about.