“You can be a taxpayer or you can be a citizen. If you’re a taxpayer your role in the country is defined by your economic and legal status. Your primary identity is individual. You’re perfectly within your rights to do everything you legally can to look after your self-interest.Within this logic, it’s perfectly fine for Donald Trump to have potentially paid no income taxes, even over a long period of time. As Trump and his allies have said, he would have broken no law. He would have taken advantage of the deductions just the way the rest of us take advantage of the mortgage deduction or any other; it’s just that he had more deductions to draw upon.
As Trump and his advisers have argued, it is normal practice in our society to pay as little in taxes as possible. There are vast industries to help people do this. There is no wrong here.The problem with the taxpayer mentality is that you end up serving your individual interest short term but soiling the nest you need to be happy in over the long term.A healthy nation isn’t just an atomized mass of individual economic and legal units. A nation is a web of giving and getting. You give to your job, and your employer gives to you. You give to your neighborhood, and your neighborhood gives to you. You give to your government, and your government gives to you.”
Source: Trump, Taxes and Citizenship – The New York Times
Bravo David Brooks. You truly have a way with words. Like my father used to say, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.” But, fyi, I am an ardent environmentalist. You seem oblivious to climate change and “The 6th Extinction.” There is a good book, by Elizabeth Kolbert, for you to write a column on. Also, those of us who adore Hillary Clinton, do so, because she is a warm softy on community and charity, as well a being a brilliant female leader, and a hard headed champion of the underrepresented, whether they are children, or elephants.
Why do so many of your class think Hillary Clinton is a witch? If she is a witch, she is like Lily Potter in the Harry Potter series, or “the Witch of Blackbird Pond.” Part of being a good citizen in my family, was supporting civil rights, and human rights, and animal rights, and allowing that even strong women should be allowed to thrive.
David Lindsay Jr.
