A lot of the antipathy toward government comes from a sense that it is something alien, spending our money outside of the tribe. I’ve been trying to figure out what I see as a disconnect between stated reasons for disliking government spending and the things that actually seem to get people riled up. Some kinds of spending seem to get folks agitated – e.g., Reagan’s famous Cadillac driving welfare queen and the young bucks eating T-bones. Others, not so much, e.g., bombing foreigners. (The latter often seems draw opposition based more on anti-war sentiments than a visceral reaction to the money spent on bombers.)
I don’t think people generally mind spending more in taxes than they personally get back, necessarily. What they mind is having their money taken for the benefit of what they regard as people who are more properly characterized as “them” than “us.” And if the money is being spent for “them,” then pretty much any amount is too much.
So, I think one’s animosity toward government is a decent gauge of whether a person thinks of government as being “of the people, for the people, and by the people;” or as an alien force, subjugating “us” for the benefit of “them.”
You can’t entirely separate anti-war sentiments from visceral reaction to the money spent on bombers.
I viscerally react to money being spent on keeping me fat, happy and stupid – bread and circuses like Colts, Pacers and their respective performance venues.
Oh, wait! That’s spending on “them.”
The money spent on high art is, of course, very worthy.
Maybe you’re onto something.
I couldn’t agree more. However, I think there is another, less reprehensible reason that people get annoyed about taxes; as we saw in the run-up to the change in reassessment, people resent it when they feel that others are not paying their fair share–when government is treating equally situated people unequally. I think your analysis probably accounts for 90% of the hostility, but there is that other 10%.
A third reason people get upset is when people feel their tax dollars are being used for causes they are vehemently against. I-69 is a pretty good example of that. The people who are against I-69 don’t have anything against people from Indy or Evansville (hopefully), but see this as an expenditure that is completely unnecessary and will have negative externalities.