No one should thank you for your tax dollars that go to social programs because it's not charity. It's your share of the cost of maintaining society. Just as your tax dollars maintain roads, street lighting, public sanitation, fire and police protection to make our towns and cities safer, cleaner, and healthier, so do social programs. Without these programs our cites would look like those in 3rd world countries plagued by disease, millions of people living on the streets and garbage dumps, food riots, and increased crime in every city.
There is taxation for the purpose of benefiting society as a whole. Charity is when you take money from one group of people and give it to another, and that's what you are advocating.
Then you categorize everything as helping society as a whole when it's not. As I pointed out, you can use benefiting society with a number of things from air conditioning in your home to hedges out in your front yard.
When I talk about benefiting society, I mean directly. Roads benefit us all directly because we all use roads whether you drive or not. A police department benefits everybody directly because even if you never call them, they are a deterrent to crime to some capacity, and it's illegal to take law into your own hands.
Education benefits society as much as government buying us a car so we can get to work in the morning. Education mostly benefits individuals, and since you want to pass the buck to people that have money, it's wealth transfer and charity--not benefiting society.
"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution that grants Congress the right, of expending on articles of benevolence, the money of their constituents."
James Madison, annals of Congress, 1794
But social welfare does benefit society as a whole, not just those that receive the benefits. There is ample evidence of the damage to society that occurs when people don't have food, shelter, access to healthcare, and when kids don't get an education. We all lose.
We all pay tax dollars for programs that we may not personally use, money for parks, money to protect wildlife, money to protect the environment, money to support museums, money for national monuments, money for space exploration, money for scientific research, money for recreation facilities, money for tribal lands, money for national and international disasters, and of course social welfare programs. These are all things we may never use, but they certainly make our nation, cities, and towns a better place to live.
And how much better place would it be to live when this country goes into default because of too much borrowing?
If you give people an easy way out, they will not try very hard. If people have a more difficult time, they will try harder.
Taxes should only be used if they are spent on directly benefiting everybody, because to use the excuse of indirectly benefiting anybody, just about anything can be put in that category.
Me going to work everyday benefits society. I can keep up my home to keep home values up in my neighborhood, I create tax money for my city, state and federal government that way, I don't have to use any government social programs, but because of those indirect benefits to society, that doesn't mean that government should buy me a car and pay my insurance so I can get to work and do these things.
Currently we do have people without homes, people don't have access to healthcare coverage (me being one of those people) and people not eating properly. But believe it or not, the country and society are doing just fine.
If taxes should only be spent on what directly benefits everybody this country would be a pretty crappy place to live.
No education for kids whose parents can't or refuse to pay
No tax dollars for national monuments or parks
No tax dollars for museums
No tax dollars trails
No tax dollars for wildlife protection
No tax dollars for natural disasters
No tax dollars for public beaches
No tax dollars for public swimming pools
No tax dollars recreation centers
No tax dollars for basic scientific research
No tax dollars for public restrooms
No tax dollars for sidewalks
No tax dollars space exportation
No tax dollars for outdoor concerts, fireworks, or fairs
No tax dollars for the facilities for the disable
No tax dollars for facilities for the mentally handicapped.
Etc.....
I won't go through your entire list, but I'll comment on a few:
Kids education: if we didn't have public education, then maybe people wouldn't have kids they couldn't take care of.
National monuments or parks. How does that benefit society as a whole?
Museums. Never been to one and probably never will. I've lived fine without them.
Trails: local tax dollars--not federal.
Public swimming pools, again, local tax dollars most likely voted on by the citizens of that city.
Space exploration: benefits all of society one way or another.
Tax dollars for concerts, fireworks and fairs. All could be paid for with an admission charge. Only those who want those things would pay for them. Again, paid for with local tax dollars and not federal.
Recreation centers. Again, how does that benefit all of society?
You see now that what I've been saying is true. You can put anything under the category of society benefits including entertainment.
