Taxes and Voter Apathy

Re “ ‘Special’ to the Point of Sameness,” Ventura County Perspective, Jan. 16.

Although I heartily agree with Bruce Roland’s views on voter apathy, another question comes to mind: Why do so many taxpayers trust the government to do a better job of spending their hard-earned dollars than they can do themselves?

Could apathy apply here as well? Are we so conditioned to believe taxes are a part of life that we hardly question whether our government is the best provider of the service?

Could it be that we are too far removed from the act of paying taxes that we do not question the real need for the government to spend our money? Having dollars painlessly removed from one’s paycheck before they were ever in one’s pocket is less painful than shelling them out afterward.

Taxes and government are a necessary part of our American society. I am convinced that most Americans can do a better job of spending our own money than our government. It is incumbent upon us as citizens of this nation to choose judiciously where our tax dollars are spent and not to provide a bottomless allowance to a flaccid government.

In Roland’s words, “Government can produce nothing; it can only spend money.”

TERESA MOGAN-SCHWARTZ

Thousand Oaks