That pretty well sums up a central function of every government on earth: conservative and liberal, reactionary and progressive, authoritarian, democratic, fascist and socialist and royal. The only question is, who should be taxed, how much, and where should the collective wealth then be spent? “Cutting taxes” is the battle cry of every politician, a knee-jerk reaction to convention and a dishonest bow to some imagined base. The truth is every government will tax and every government will spend, and they must. We all want the water to run when we turn the faucet on; we all want the bridge to stand as we cross it; we all want the sewers to do their job.
In a democracy, we should not only openly discuss the truth of taxing and spending, but we should insist on transparency on the big question of who is being taxed and where those taxes get spent. Let the people decide whether to fund war or education, incarceration or social security, militarization or health care. Straight up.
Bill Ayers 
right on brother, right on
No room for a Communist, in this country Or A communist President ( B.H.O)
Dear Dr. Ayers
I am sure that you are being swamped with email postings, messages, and such. But I just wanted to say that I do appreciate your work on education reform and in education. Reasoned, passionate discourse is the only way, I believe, that enables disparate voices to be equally heard and equally understood. As a tailend boomer who cut her political baby teeth on the McCarthy campaign and the Student Mobilization Committee, I find that my core values remain the same, but the avenues for change have widened. I think we boomers may finally be growing up.
Problem for the middle class isn’t that taxes are too high, but that wages have declined. The increasing economic inequality, translated into inequalty in health care, education, etc., is a greater threat to democracy than any external force or the spectre of “socialism” ( as if we should live in fear of becoming as miserable as folks condemed to live in Denmark).
Finally with Obama we can get Gitmo closed, pull out from the “war on terror” in Iraq and elsewhere and spend the money at home, 10 billion a month will buy a lot of infrastructure at home, why pay for it in Iraq, it will most likely get blown up anyway? Even if the 10 billion a month looks like a small amount compared the the bailout of the fat cats, it should be directed to better use.
Straight up!
Such a simple concept. Such logic.
You’d think that… ah, never mind. Not worth it.
🙂
I recently viewed the documentary.
Had I have been of age, I would have joined you.
Hey Ayers-
You are one distorted individual and that’s putting it kindly.
I think it would be cost prohibitive to have an election every time a “tax and spend” comes up before congress. Nice theory.
What the country really needs is a internet database where every American can verify very single expenditure made by our local, state and federal government.
Wouldn’t it be great if the whole country could see all the nonsensical study grants going to colleges and universities around the country?