 |
Add to My Group
3
2
2
View Ratings |
Rate It
Would Americans be Pro-Wars if They Had to Pay for Them with Higher Taxes?
By Grant Lawrence (about the author) Page 1 of 1 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Grant Lawrence - Writer
-- Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said higher-income Americans should be taxed to pay for additional troops sent to Afghanistan and that NATO should provide half of the new soldiers.....Source: Bloomberg News
Let's be honest. People, especially Americans, are a greedy, bloodthirsty lot.
But
here in America we have figured out a way to be both greedy and
bloodthirsty without having to choose between either of them.
We
have financed our wars for empire on the backs of our children,
grandchildren, and great grandchildren while we rip off the oil, the
opium poppy, and whatever resources we can legally steal from the
countries we invade.
But what if we had to actually pay for the pleasure of our wars right now?
What if we had to pay for the trillion or so dollars with higher taxes right in the present?
I
wonder if Americans would opt for blood or revert to greed if they
knew their occupations would hit them right in their own wallets.
You
see, Americans (especially conservatives) don't like to pay for
anything of value. They want a safe, business friendly society that has
no public infrastructure, no functioning education, and no social
safety net. But Americans do like to borrow to fund wars and the
preparing for wars. They also like to borrow to fund welfare for the
super rich in the form of bankster bailouts.
For the last decade,
disaster capitalism in the form of globalization has all been a
wonderful experiment in the dehumanization of people worldwide. The
brutal implementation of that strategy in the form of wars for Empire
has not only killed well over 1 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan,
but it has made our Military Industrial Complex fat with blood profits.
In short, Americans have been able to have their cake and eat it too.
So
it would obviously be a tough choice for many cold-hearted, selfish
Americans. They would have to give up their lust for blood or their
lust for money. The choice would be enough to make a 'Ditto Head' Tea Bagger have second thoughts about the American Dream.
Think about the shock of pro-war Conservatives having to choose between their wallets or their promotion of other Americans fighting and dying for their country in endless wars.
I
am not sure, but I think Patriotic Americans would opt for their wallets
and take a dim view of wars that would actually cost them something in
the present.
In that case, let's put an end to the free ride for
the Military Industrial Complex and all of their supporters by not
allowing them to fund their killing machine on the backs of future
generations of Americans.
Let's raise taxes now to pay for our present wars, so greedy Americans lose their lust for blood in foreign lands.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Author |
Contact Editor |
 View Authors' Articles |
by Jeffrey Kaye
$27.95
Lowest New Price $18.45
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Wiley
by Alex Callinicos
$19.95
Lowest New Price $5.00
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Polity
by Barbara Stallings
Number of pages: 47
Publisher: Latin American Program, the Wilson Center
by Kim E. Shienbaum
$98.95
Lowest New Price $69.95
Number of pages: 200
Publisher: Praeger
| 11 comments |
|
||||
|
||||||||||||||
News (0) 
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Supported (0) 
Interesting (0) 
Inspiring (0) Tell a Friend:
|
Copyright © 2002-2010, OpEdNews |
