US Tax Policy Creates Poverty: Let’s Listen to Mr. Desmond

   “Once we were slaves…”

-The Passover Haggadah

      With Passover approaching, and thoughts turning to the traditional words of the Pesach Seder, we recall how Judeo-Christian tradition commands kindness to the stranger, in memory of having been strangers, and slaves in a strange land.  Yet, these words seem to have been forgotten by US tax code and other policy makers with regard to those who seem strange to the upper income and wealthy members of American society.  Even the upper and middle classes are not immune to seeing the poor as strangers, unworthy of help.

      I never, when I was a homeowner taking that mortgage deduction, thought of it as a government tax break, government offered help, in fact, for me, a middle-class American, but Desmond points out that many of the usual tax deductions we take as home owners, or deducting business expenses as small business owners, are in fact entitlements, which cost the government more than many of those which many oppose because they help the more vulnerable in our society.  And even worse:

“…published and it showed that if the top 1% of Americans just paid the taxes they owed, not paid more taxes, … we as a nation could raise an additional $175 billion every year. That is just about enough to pull everyone out of poverty, every parent, every child, every grandparent. So we clearly have the resources to do this. It is not hard.

…

           connect elderly folks with someonethat just kind of walksthem through the application process of applying for…”

     Exactly what Serving Adults do, starting in Phase II (or sooner, if your community chooses) #ProjectDoBetter

(from NPR author interview of Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond, By Dave Davies)

     While these are difficult problems to solve, maternal health care and the long held biases that lead to these outcomes, the problems can be solved.  But, working together across issue interest divides to connect all of our work together is crucial:

 

     We really can Do Better

Shira

Action Items:

1.) Thoughtful Readers, share your ideas for health care solutions, please.

2.) Write a story, post or comment here, that uses those thoughts.

*****************

Click here for:

Learning through story:

                                                   Babylon5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin,  La Casa de Papel/Money Heist, or El Ministerio del Tiempo Reviews

Learning via Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or

 Learning from Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing (including Ann & Anna…)

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

ShiraDest

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Advertisement