I caught myself in an old habit recently — a habit I know many people share.
As I paid the monthly bills, going through the stack one by one, I kept laying the medical and dental bills aside. Why? So I could see how much money I had left after paying for everything else, and then decide how much to pay the doctors.
See, the phone company or the power company may shut me off if I get behind. The credit card company will charge me interest. The mortgage company will tack on a penalty. But the doctors won’t do anything. So maybe sometimes I’ll pay half what I owe a doctor and catch up next month.
And then there’s the other reason that maybe I don’t pay the medical bills in full automatically. I go through life pretending I should be healthy all the time, that medical bills are an “extra expense” — something that really doesn’t belong in my budget.
So while I treat the mortgage payment, the car payment, the gas bill, the cable TV bill, as inevitable, as things to pay as a matter of course, as a cost of living, I treat the medical bills differently.
A root cause?
Think about it. How many of us regard paying medical bills in the same way we regard paying the mortgage? We act as if those bills are an extra burden, the added expenses that bust our budget.
We decide how much house we want, how much car we want, how many dinners out we want, what kind of clothes, what premium TV channels. Then we chafe at the doctor bills that cut into our discretionary income.
The reality is that we, and our families, need medical care. We want our kids to get better fast when they catch strep throat. We want them to have the right eyeglasses and to have straight teeth. We know we need our own preventive tests that come when we reach certain ages. All those things are not only necessary but valuable.
So, what if we changed our way of thinking? We’d put medical and dental expenses in the column with all manner of other necessities, like food, telephone, water, heat, haircuts, school supplies — ordinary costs of living. And then we’d decide how much house, how much car, and so on. And we wouldn’t lay aside that pile of doctor bills at monthly check-writing time. We would lower our level of stress.
New attitude
Couldn’t the same thought process change our attitude toward taxes? They’re a cost of living; something we pay for services we want and in many cases couldn’t live as well — or at all — without. Fire and police protection. Clean drinking water. Wastewater treatment, trash pickup. Safe roads. Good schools for our kids with broad curriculums, sports, clubs, activities.
If we thought of taxes that way, we’d mentally factor that into the family budget. And then, when it came time to vote on a school referendum, we wouldn’t vote “no” on reflex because that would “raise taxes.” We’d look at it and say, “I can handle an extra $10 or $20 a month on my property tax bill — if I’m convinced it means my kids go to a better-equipped, more pleasant school that enhances their ability to learn.”
I know, I know, we can’t just lie down and accept any new program or any new tax any government body wants to pass. There have been abuses, there has been waste, there have been government programs that failed.
But the bald truth is that many of us who rail against any tax increase can easily afford to pay more. We simply don’t want to, and we are so stubborn about it that we don’t even ask, when a tax increase is proposed, what it will be for. If it raises my taxes, then the answer is no. Full stop.
Paying consequences
It’s one thing to be an alert and critical citizen who asks local governments to justify what they spend. It’s quite another to just dig in our heels, listen to the bile-spewers on talk radio, and reject any tax increase — while our water and wastewater infrastructure crumbles, our roads deteriorate, and our schools fire teachers and cut programs in art, music and drama.
If we could just learn to think about taxes differently — not as a nuisance, not even as a necessary evil, but as money we spend willingly for important services we can’t imagine being without — then maybe we could look more kindly on increased government spending when it’s for a worthwhile purpose.
Should we give governments a blank check? Of course not. But neither should we greet every prospect of higher taxes with a snarl. Try a different attitude. Listen to the plan. Have the debate. Then decide. And write that check with a smile.
Comments on this column or about any article in this publication may be directed to editor Ted J. Rulseh, 800/257-7222 or editor@mswmag.com.
