A day in the life of a Swedish schoolchild

The reason we pay taxes is to live in a civilized society. As we chop our taxes down society itself falls for it.

Often, I think, money reduces things to such an abstraction that everything becomes a number. As Lilly Tomlin put it, "Accountants know the cost of everything and the value of nothing."

Let's step back.

Imagine you went to sleep normally. You turned out the lights, laid down and fell asleep. When the alarm went off you woke up and zombie-like searched out the coffee machine. You sat down with your coffee and as you looked at the paper you spat coffee all over the table.

There on the front page of the Swedish Washington Post was an article about guests staying at an ice-hotel, made entirely of snow and ice, enjoying vodka.

You were, it seems, in Sweden.

You pinch yourself, but feel it and assume you are awake.

Your children come down to breakfast. Confused you pack them lunches (unnecessary as you'll see) then send them off to school, dressed in typical American fashion (just like those folks on MTV).

Here is what your child's day would be like when they arrived:

A day in the life of a Swedish schoolchild

The difference between what we have here, McDonalds encroaching in the schools, insufficient resources, and factory-based education, and what they have there, small class sizes, individualized curriculums, free lunches, and safe and clean environments, is a life-based tax-distribution (PDF) and enough taxes to fund the programs which benefit all citizens (the common good).

What are corporate taxes in Sweden like?

Here are the details (PDF).

When you talk only of taxes you talk only of money. When you talk only of money you talk only of numbers. When you talk only of numbers one has no more meaning than two or three or four except that one is easier to afford.

This has driven us to where we are, discussing schools as if they were budget items instead of budget items as if they were schools. We discuss healthcare as a number and therefore as if it were a burden on society rather than a life-affirming, citizen pleasing, benefit to society. It goes on-and-on in this manner up and down the budgets.

My shocking conclusion is that even the rich can benefit from a well-educated, well-cared-for society. It is perhaps more pleasant to believe that hard work or good morals or good breeding makes one better, more entitled, or worthy of extravagance though.

Numbers insulate us from suffering, they protect us from despair, and they keep our dreams in little boxes.