More than 50 people stood outside the Enoch Pratt Library’s Southeast Anchor branch on a recent spring morning in Baltimore. Parents with small children, teenagers, and senior citizens clustered outside the door and waited to hear their ticket numbers called.
They weren’t there for books—at least, not at that moment. They came to shop for groceries.
Connected to the library, the brightly painted market space is small but doesn’t feel cramped. Massive windows drench it in sunshine. In a previous life, it was a café. Now, shelves, tables, counters, and a refrigerator are spread out across the room, holding a mix of produce and shelf-stable goods.
You’re “forced” to pay taxes for the stability it provides the entire community.
Here’s a great study on what causes crime:
https://sentencing.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/sentencingnvgov/content/Meetings/2022/08.24.22 NSC Mtg. Agenda Item 8 PFJ What Really Lowers Crime.pdf
Overwhelmingly most crime and violence in a community is related to the ability it’s people have to earn income, housing, and healthcare. The very things our taxes are supposed to provide a security net for.
The taxes “forced” on you, to a point, are necessary for the stability of our communities. And the reason that stability is fading in most American cities isn’t becuase of illegals, it’s because of conservatives lowering and diverting tax revenues away from the social programs necessary to minimize crime. (Because those programs are “socialism.”) Also conservatives fighting to never raise the minimum wage for a generation of Americans. What are the conservative policies on housing again? Oh yeah, people now have to compete with corporations to get them, so prices will never lower.
People are generally happy to pay taxes towards social safety nets when they understand the basic economics of the security it provides. Especially when there is a scientifically proven increase in violence and crime that comes from the erosion of that security.
If you feel “forced” to provide basic economic security to other Americans for the benefit of your entire community, and it’s safety - then you don’t have to look far to find a conservative who is against charity. Just look in a mirror.
We’ve been saying this for many years. It seems we have fostered a society that isn’t really interested in victim reduction as it is in vengeance. Only have to look at some of the countries with low recidivism rates.