While walking through Washington, DC yesterday, I saw these words carved into stone at the main entrance of the Internal Revenue Service headquarters. They’re part of a longer quote made by Oliver Wendell Holmes, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court between 1902 and 1932.
Given revelations of the past few years, I believe the opposite is often true. The following words are not mine, but I agree with them wholeheartedly:
The sentiment carved above the IRS building assumes a direct, honorable transaction: citizens remit the fruits of their labor, and in return, the state delivers order, infrastructure, and a functioning civilization. But that premise collapses when public funds are absorbed by entrenched bureaucracies that deliver little more than self-perpetuation. From a fiscally conservative perspective, Oliver Wendell Holmes’s ideal looks less like a civic bargain and more like a blank check written to institutions that treat accountability as an afterthought.
Take foreign aid. Agencies like USAID routinely funnel billions of dollars overseas under the banner of development and stabilization, only for inspector general reports to uncover massive tranches lost to corruption, administrative bloat, and ill-conceived nation-building projects that vanish the moment funding dries up. Hardworking taxpayers are told their contributions build global goodwill, yet local communities rarely see lasting results, while the private contractors, NGOs, and Washington consultants feasting on federal grants thrive. It is an industry designed to measure success by how much capital it can disperse rather than whether a single tangible objective is permanently achieved.
The failure is even more glaring at home, nowhere more visibly than in the mismanagement of the homelessness crisis in major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles. Over the past decade, voters have repeatedly authorized billions in dedicated taxes and bond measures—such as Proposition HHH — under the promise that adequate funding would clear the streets and provide shelter. Instead, costs routinely soar past $500,000 to $800,000 to construct a single supportive housing unit, tied up in permitting bottlenecks, environmental litigation, and developer kickbacks. The sheer scale of the funding has spawned what many rightly dub the “homeless-industrial complex,” where non-profits and public agencies receive perpetual budgets to manage a crisis they have zero financial incentive to actually solve. The result is an absurd tragedy: as the public balance sheet bleeds, the human misery on the sidewalks only multiplies.
When governments operate without the market disciplines of efficiency, measurable ROI, or penalties for outright failure, “civilized society” is not what is being funded. Instead, taxation simply becomes a coercive pipeline that extracts private wealth from productive citizens and redistributes it into administrative inertia, leaving taxpayers with diminished paychecks and degraded public spaces to show for it.
Thank you for posting this, it reflects my long held thesis that homelessness will never be resolved as long as there are social workers. Social Work Bachelor degrees started in the early 1960’s and by coincidence that was also the start of the homelessness tsunami.
Our father was an electrical engineer employed for over 20 years with the federal government – first in Transportation and then in Public Works. He always said that the regions were much more productive than Ottawa was. He also coined the term “Pink Ribbons on Cows’ Tails” to describe the proliferation of useless government initiatives and the attendant increase in civil servants.
It is “them vs us”. Them is (a) every politician, and (b) every public servant except your local road crew, and (c) every funded authority, board, and commission, and (d) every grant-dependent subsidy-sucking entity and individual in the private sector.
The nation is like a huge bull moose infested with a horde of ticks that is slowly bringing it to the ground.
wow
Very succinct. If only there were a non-violent way of ridding the moose of its ticks. Oct 19 ques.10 option 2
Oh wait. It’s not a bull moose, it’s a cow! And look here, she’s huge ’cause shes about to give birth!!
A calf was born, the people all stood amazed, new life had come in the west through years of travail.
The cow could die now, the ticks had slaked their last measure from her, she crawled into a lake and was eaten by turtles. !!!
Behold the new life, we shall call her, -Alberta.-
apologies, got carried away there
Ban government borrowing at all levels!
For many decades, I’ve said that all governments should be banned from carrying any debt … with the one exception being a federal government allowed to fight a legitimate war. What constitutes “legitimate” is of course a problem. But all municipal and provincial/state governments should absolutely be forbidden from not having a balanced budget every year. And then federal governments should be severely restricted from not having a balanced budget.
“one exception being a federal government allowed to fight a legitimate war”
Does that include a Trade War?
I get and agree with your point.
“Taxes are the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society.” – Margaret Mead
“Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.” – Will Rogers
Newsflash: Government Doesn’t Fix Problems – It Is The Problem
Its the vicious circle of politics – create a problem then declare a solution.
(Think of Liberal mass immigration and Liberal housing promises.)
And now politics is ubiquitous.
Want to fix it?
You’ve gotta cull government by 90%.
And that means you’ll have to cull 75% of the population (minimum) who will try to stop you.
Have a nice day.
Excellent post Robert.
Regime controlled media is always whining about “big oil”, “big corporations”, “big SUVs”, but never ever BIG GOVERNMENT, which, last time I checked – especially living here in the worst state in the country (New Jersey) – takes about 50% of every dollar I earn. And still that’s nowhere near enough, because last time I checked this country is $40 trillion in debt.
In summary, my wallet is being gang raped every single day by BIG GOVERNMENT. Truly, the enemy of the people.
The issue is the MAGNITUDE of the taxes. Our country is SO awash in other people’s money … that EVERYONE wants a piece of the pie. So we get “infrastructure” after “infrastructure” spending and nothing gets built. We get “Green New Graft” paying massive salaries and pensions for useless and crippling regulations. And we get SCAM, SCAM, SCAM … FRAUD, FRAUD, FRAUD.
https://www.macrotrends.net/3669/california-state-tax-collections
https://www.macrotrends.net/3135/federal-tax-receipts
What? Was it Willie Sutton who was asked why he robbed banks? And answered simply … “because that’s where the money is”. Our tax receipts eclipse every bank on the planet combined. So theft of our dollars is rampant.
Just about $22B NJ confiscation … Tc
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/QTAXTOTALQTAXCAT3NJNO
Only a quarter of CA’s confiscation.
That is one ugly graph. Highway robbery!
At present, government is essentially a share cropping arrangement in which the politicians, bureaucrats and civil servants collect the fees while private individuals and corporations work and pay the rent. The latter are forced to purchase the ever-expanding sub-standard services from the former, never fully worth the fees (taxes) they’re forced to pay, and as a result the latter become increasingly dependent upon the former just to keep their heads above water financially. The vicious cycle continues and the parasites aggressively influence legislation to keep it that way.
“…essentially a share cropping arrangement…”
It’s the modern Feudalism. Worse that the old Feudalism, because the new lords don’t maintain their demesne. They just pillage it. Or, more to the point, deliberately wreck the place. See Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver….
Since just before the Turn of the 20th Century, governments became solutions looking for problems.
Robert said “…redistributes it into administrative inertia…”
I will note that foreign influence campaigns, electoral interference and astroturf rioting have virtually ceased in the USA since the US-AID was defunded and closed down.
It feels to me like it all went to skimmers and empire-building bureaucrats up to the 1960s. But since then it seems that the USA (and the rest of Western nations) have been funding their enemies.
Trump is the first US President to call this out for what it is. That’s why they all hate him so much. You can tell when you’re over the target by how much flack you’re taking.
Jesus wept!
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/1-4b-of-federal-grants-spent-on-research-about-trudeau-s-speeches-dancefloors-and-more-ctf/ar-AA2cmG5q?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ASTS&cvid=833be2f6e301491da299d329594e7697&ei=165&cvpid=6ab96063c2074a589171802d75d64e0b
“Among the other projects mentioned are a Quebec-based study on the “state of the dancefloor in Canada” that was awarded $78,623 in funding, and University of Calgary research on Arctic climate comics that was granted $88,591.
Elsewhere, SSHRC gave a University of Ottawa professor $43,693 to study the “contested meaning” of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s speeches.”
“…the “state of the dancefloor in Canada” that was awarded $78,623 in funding…”
This falls under the same category as stealing dimes from the collection plate at church. Not that it isn’t bad, but it’s skimming. Small potatoes.
Lately it’s been revealed that the “NGO community” has been filling railcars out the back door of the US Mint and shipping them abroad to fund ISIS, the PLO, Russia, China, the invasion of Europe, stuff like that. Since the 1970s. That’s a lot of bread.
All those tunnels they keep finding in Gaza? Built with US tax dollars. The entire Chinese nuclear program? US tax dollars.
The NGO community … believe what all Harvard intellectuals [sic] believe. They are committed to “leveling the playing field”. They HATE that America is the lone superpower. And that Israel is the lone ME superpower. So they fund and strengthen our enemies.
Eventually, all illicit NGO funding should be extracted from them in penalties. Economic sanctions against Russia? Economic sanctions against Iran? Now finish the job … Economic sanctions against NGO’s
A random group of citizens can serve a term in office and get more done for less cost to the country than career politicians.
Some say boiling frogs starting with cold water doesn’t work.
The world today proves it does work with people. Creeping totalitarianism. Every generation the individual delimited and restricted a wee bit more ‘for the greater good’.
Can’t let your kids ride in the bed of the pickup. Tires must have builtin pressure sensors. Seatbelts, not a choice a mandate. Shower flows, toilet flushes they decide we abide. Light bulbs we’re free to choose any one we want, of the two government approved. Your money’s safe in the bank, unless of course your a trucker or some such and offend those that rule.
We’re very close to the point where anything, everything that is not expressly allowed is forbidden. Me, turning 88 in a few days, I’m old enough to remember when any one, Yank or Canuk, would consider any of the above to be their own decisions to make and damned be any official that tried to tell them different!
Little by little, the water’s getting hotter most of y’all not only accept it you don’t even notice it.
From the Ragona Sisters … the government is coming to tax your home because home appreciation is unearned equity luck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3KDdv3oEVo
Because we need more surtaxes.
If taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society, for all the tax we pay there should be some evidence of a civilized society.
the metaphor is the freight train. its been chugging away, picking up speed as more and more cargo gets dumped on it, and up ahead . . . . . . . . the tracks run out. not only that, its because the bridge is out and it going to careen into the gorge. and there is no light to show the hazard. but there are those at the bridge raising the alarm and panicking because no one is paying attention. the ones on the train celebrating ‘their guy’ is driving.
…but other than that it should be a solid day.
“… it should be a solid day.”
Right? Ask the train driver when he’s half way down how it’s going, he’ll say so far so good.
Remember kids, it’s not the fall that kills ya. It’s the sudden stop at the bottom.
Old government proverb:
When you see light at the end of the tunnel…..order more tunnel!
Worthy government expenditures are the price we pay for civilization.
The others, the rest, the unworthy are what we pay for tyranny.
At the beginning of the 20th century, government at all levels comprised no more than 5% of GDP. It is now above 40%.
Tyranny commands 1/3 of the economy.
Taxation is theft
National debt is proof ,that “civilization” as provided by our “helpers” is completely unaffordable.
We are taxed to extinction.
We are less civilized.
Oliver Wendell Holmes was wrong.