People often say taxes are evil and the government wastes all the money it takes from them, but is this true? Many tend to ponder why is it that even when they are giving such a large sum of money to the government, the public services such as education and health care are still so tight. Whether it is the education system, arts, sports or public services, everyone can see the impact of a tighter budget. With so much money annually taxed, people should all be having luxurious benefits, but the situation cannot be any further from reality. This makes one ask: is the government doing a negative thing to tax the people annually? Where will the government get the money to provide public services if not from its citizens? After all the services provided are benefited by everyone. People have always been talking about tax in a really negative way, yet everyone is receiving the benefits that their tax money are gone to. Many often do not take time to think how much money it takes to run a government serving 300 million people. For this reason alone, I’m am compelled to argue for the issue of why tax should be seen in a more positive light. It is not as if the government takes the tax money, stores it in their bank, and not use a penny of it. Contrary to the widespread popularity of the idea that taxes are immoral, there are not enough people who think about what the government actually uses tax for the public facilities, such as roads, defense, health programs, and education.
The first of the major, but smallest amount, funding spent by the government would be for road maintenance and bridge building. If one has felt the frustration of getting stuck in traffic then he or she will know that their tax is well spent to build new roads. An estimate 4.1% of a states budget is spent on roads every year; this doesn’t include the building of bridges (Jackson). The benefits of bridges are to divert traffic to flow more smoothly, cut down on travel time, and, in many cases, are necessities to cross territories that are otherwise impossible without a bridge. After a bridge is erected, many awe at the spectacle of how such heavy slabs of stone are risen to such heights into the sky. Building bridges are extremely expensive. In 2007 Georgia alone spent $931 million on bridges (Jackson).
The safety of a county depends on how much tax the households members in the district contribute to the government. It is no coincident that counties that pay more tax are safer. Policemen, who perform their duty of defending their community, are paid by the government. Although policemen are brave men and women who fight for justice, policemen also have a family to feed; they will not work for nothing. Sadly with all the hard work they do, they still have to use money just like other citizens. This means they need to earn money from their job. In Georgia the defense force alone uses $1.8 billion, which means another enormous chunk of the tax payers’ money is consumed (Betters). To be protected might be every citizens right, but nothing in this world is free .
The next major issue regarding tax complaints is health care. For anyone who has gotten sick and went to the doctors can sympathize with how devastating being ill is like. Health care is a critical problem in every nation; it is no wonder the government spends over $600 billion on it. The $600 billion spent on health care every year is 34.9% of the federal budget (Williams). With the United States of American government spending over $600 billion on health care in fiscal 2008, Medicare claims $390 billion, and Medicaid claims a estimate of $210 billion. With an aging population of elderly from the baby boom, health care has become a critical necessity. The government sponsored benefits for U.S. adults from ages 65 and older increased to $27,289 per person in 2007; this is a gigantic 24% increase since 2000. Health care has inflated faster than any other programs, but the worst has yet to come. It is predicted that over the next decade, the estimated health care cost will not only increase but double (“Cost of Government“). The Government is using the taxes now more than ever to solve the problem from the help of its fellow citizens.
Education is the last and the most expensive government program that will be introduced. Many parents do not recall pulling money from their own pockets to support their child’s tuition. This is because Georgia alone uses $10.6 billion every year just to fund education. Statistics have shown the graduation rate of American high school students is a astonishing 80% (Henry). This means that more than 3 out of 4 American children born are able to graduate high school. On the national level, a total of more than $700 billion and a staggering 56.8% of all government spending is used on education. To fund a child from kindergarten to their end of high school, the government needs to spend an estimated $100,000 (Lips).
Many debate over the issue of how taxes are used have been argued, but there are hard evidence of what most of the taxes are spent on. The majority of the taxes collected by the government is spent of roads, defense, health care and education; therefore, without taxing, these services will not be possible. It is important for people to realize that a big portion of their hard earned money is indeed taken for a time being, but the benefits are affecting every single American citizen’s life. Taxes are necessities to run a community, a state, and definitely a nation. Everyone contributes to the success of a nation; and how successful a nation is can be reflected in the individuals residing in it. In this tough economy, everyone needs to ban together to pull through and come out of the recession in the best shape possible.