Theological Musings On The Coming Tax Rebate

One of the most grating and inextinguishable commercials currently running on TV is for an outfit that promises cash advances to people who have settlements and annuities coming to them. "Now" is the key word, screamed by really lousy performers who want the world to know whose money it is and when they want it. Stumble into this commercial more than once, and you are likely to begin fantasizing their getting something a little different than that for which they clamor.

There is nothing new about the idea that life owes us good things, and that we deserve to get them at the earliest possible moment. A lot of people seem to think this way about taxes. In this case, it was their money all along, and they want it (back) --- now. Government officials, one particularly attractive argument goes, cannot possibly know as well as we do how to spend our money wisely, and so the less of it we give them in the first place, and the more of it we demand back, the better off we will be.

This summer, while the two political parties hassle each other over who is going to control taxes better the next time around, some of the rest of us are going to be out and about spending a few hard earned tax dollars newly returned to us, ostensibly in the interest of helping the economy stave off the even deeper recession that we are likely to be in by that time. At least, that is what economic experts and the government hope we will do. Sad to say, though, no credible economist or politician really thinks that the coming tax rebate is a good idea, however expedient it may be to pander to our own "I want it now" mind-set.

Certainly the idea defies common sense. Here we are as a nation, running up another half billion dollar federal budget deficit, and in hock to not so friendly powers all around the world up to our missiles. Here we are as credit-card dependent families, averaging ten grand in yet to be be paid charges on them. Here we are as aspiring homeowners, with neighborhoods going down the tubes in foreclosures up and down the blocks. And the solution? Take some play money, go out and buy stuff --- any stuff --- and fly the flag proudly on your front lawn. Savers will be rounded up on the spot.

A still worse thing about offering this latest tax rebate with a straight face is the offense it does to moral sensitivity. People least in need of it are still going to get it, while people most in need of it are not. (The irony, economically speaking, is that the former are also the least likely to spend it, while the latter would be the most likely.) I wonder what might happen if everyone in the first group were to pledge their rebates to the direct alleviation of the situations of the 30 million people in this country living below the poverty line? Would it "jump-start" the economy? Beats me. Would it bring about an increase in sensitivity to the out of whack income distribution in our society that presently borders on moral leprosy? This beats me, too, but I for one would be willing to take the chance that it just might.

The danse macabre that passes for debate on most tax issues these days is a painful reminder that there is something very, very wrong about a society whose well-being and world leadership depend to the very core upon seducing people to consume more and more --- and more. And that there is something very, very disturbing about a society which depends upon righting a ship sinking in debt by actions that pile on even more debt, while a very, very small number in that society enjoy an ever increasing capacity to jump ship at will. A good dose of John Wesley's teachings about the uses of money could go a long way toward getting things more ship-shape.

Gain all you can, he said, with just one little qualification --- gain it honorably. Then save all you can, he went on, and most likely he would now encourage seeking out honest investment counselors to help us do it. But then the preacher really went to meddling. He said that all the gaining and all the saving are for the purpose of giving. Not consuming, but giving. Mssrs. Greenspan and Bernanke, help us out here, please. Got any ideas on how to make America stronger by making Americans more self-giving? If you don't, God does.