Contribution

I think we have really lost the meaning of being productive and contributing members of society. In today's world when all we care about is the bottom line, we no longer do things just for the sake of doing something good. It's all about making money instead. Investors have driven up housing prices so that those who work hard to own a home still cannot. Houses are for living in, not making money off of.

At a counseling internship site where I was working, we had to worry about our program getting cut by bean counters if we didn't show a monetary benefit to having the program. Making money off of someone's distress, does that make sense to anyone? What about just having the program because people need help?

Don't even get me started on the wealthy people who can afford to pay taxes and still try to find ways out of it. I don't UNDERSTAND the mentality of making a purchase so that the money doesn't go to taxes. And often times, it's a purchase that they wouldn't otherwise make. They don't need that extra boat, or car, or shitty modern art painting for $20K, but just to get out of paying taxes, they buy them anyway. Does this make sense to anyone? What about paying taxes so that the things our society needs has a greater chance of being bought?

It's amazing to me how many people look at our government as being a separate entity that has nothing to do with them. But folks, the personal is political and the political is personal. We are the ones who vote for those who end up in government positions, well, those of us who vote anyway. And without the four letter word "taxes" we would not have the fire department, police, schools... And it's certainly not large corporations who are going to help provide those services. They won't settle for a 15 percent profit margin rather than a 20 percent one.

Just remember this: when you die, it is not going to matter how much money you had. The only thing that's going to matter is what you gave back to your community.