"Waste and Taxes" submitted by Charlene Watson

I want to share this article from the April 1952 entitled, “Waste And Taxes.” --- It has been said, “What does around comes around comes around.” This article could have been in today’s newspaper except that the waste now is so many times greater now than it was at that time. What would we have thought if we could have seen then what is happening today?

Waste and Taxes

“This snapshot on taxes and how tax money is wasted has been provided by John S. Knight: ‘When you realize that the federal government today employs 2,500,000 people at the cost of more than $666,000.000 a month; that one of every five citizens receives some form of income from the government; that $1 out of every $4 we earn goes for taxes to support the federal government and that about $1 out of every $10 spend it being wasted, it’s time to do something.

"We have 29 federal agencies lending money, 28 handling welfare projects, 16 in wildlife preservation, and 50 compiling statistics. One agency has enough light bulbs to last 93 years, and another has enough loose-leaf binders to last 247 years. One bureau has 24 supervisors for every 25 employees. It’s your money! What are you going to do about it?

"Well, the answer to that last query is not very much. The American taxpayer has been in a curious state of mind for years now – a condition which we have called punch drunk for want of any better term. But he has allowed himself to be bamboozled into paying the highest taxes of history by government administrations which continually harp on emergency – and while he squirms and squawks as the tax feather come off, he does little about the matter.

"In this presidential election year, he is likely to be bamboozled into voting for the same spendthrift crowd in Washington again by the wiles and clever pleas of politicians. But if he persists in helping to keep the same gang in office by his vote, his playhouse and that of the nations is in great danger of toppling over.

"Why he won’t see it --- on the basis of plain arithmetic, if nothing else – is something difficult to understand.’” (Article attributed to the El Dorado Times).

P.S. – I love that term, “bamboozled.”  It fits our government in 2011 just like it did in 1952 only more so.  –(Charlene’s Freelance Publications).