More Than Jobs

            When asked about increasing taxes, conservatives spout a unison response: “That would be a job-killer.” They still believe, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that large sums of money in millionaires’ pockets and corporations’ vaults alone somehow morph into jobs as those millionaires and businesses purchase new equipment and hire new workers. Unfortunately for the present state of things, such is not the case. Millionaires prefer by buy luxuries and corporations prefer to reward their investors with dividends. Government jobs are being axed right and left, so even they are not available.

Can we assume, as our conservative compatriots do, that “it’s all about jobs”? We cannot. Jobs are vitally important for individuals and for the common good. But there’s more to life than work and more to the wellbeing of our nation than jobs for those who can work.

Americans know that. All Americans—those who have jobs and those who do not—want to breathe clean air, drink clean water, eat safe food and take safe medicine. We value good police and fire departments, expect well-regulated air traffic, and need first-rate highways. We love our national, state and local parks. Given the choice, Clevelanders would rather live next to a lake teaming with fish than one blooming with algae. And we certainly depend upon our military and its servicemen and women. Without governments funded by taxes, we’d have none of those. Even if we all had jobs, life would be brutal and short.

          Moreover, if the measure of all things is whether they produce jobs, where does that leave those who cannot work because of age (too young or too old), because of illness or disability, or because of any condition beyond human control? Or those who have made mistakes that leave them on the outside of job fairs looking in; will they be given any chance to turn their lives around? If all government budgetary and program efforts are narrowly focused on jobs alone, what of the large portions of our population whose work is to get an education or who need programs that can help them redirect their adult lives?

There’s more to life than a job. There’s more to the power of our nation than its workforce grinding out widgets. Even Americans sipping tea at their little party know that. I long to hear a conservative commentator or politician support anything for the common good other than cutting taxes.

Several months ago someone took out an ad which listed most—maybe all—of the taxes Americans pay. No reason was offered for publishing the list, but I can only assume its intention was provoke an “ain’t it awful” reaction. But the ad never told what those taxes pay for, what they buy for us who enjoy the highest standard of living the world has even known and who, compared to much of the rest of the world, bear a light tax burden. Do we want our fellow Americans who are poor to live at level of abject poverty found in much of the world? How well we all live together is a product of private enterprise and public policy, including equitable and fair taxation.

We need jobs; good paying jobs in good workplaces; jobs that produce useful products and offer useful services. But we need more than jobs alone if we are to remain the beacon nation celebrated by the Statue of Liberty. After all, the communist Soviet Union boasted full employment…but who’d want to go there from here?