Sunday, March 02, 2008

credit where credit is due ...

So question. What if I work really hard, and smart, and work my way up the ladder, actually *creating* wealth, and end up making ... half a million dollars a year, say. Hypothetically. In the U.S. And I have to pay .... say, $300,000 of that in taxes to the federal government. And part of the $300,000 I pay goes to pay to build an Apache helicopter gunship (which, by the way, I used to think were extremely kewl, before I got mature enough to begin to understand the reality of exactly what they're built to do), which we then sell to Israel on the cheap, since by and large we Americans tend to like the Israelites so much. And then say the Israeli Defense Forces deploy that Apache gunship in Gaza, and use it to kill a little 11 and 12 year old brother and sister who are sleeping in their beds.

That was all the set up. Here's the question: Do I get to have any of the responsibility for the killing of the little sleeping siblings?

And if so, what can/shall I do about that?

One possible answer, from my POV, is ... never make enough money that I have to pay taxes.

But that's not very satisfying. It feels like a ... copout, somehow.

1 comment:

byron smith said...

I don't think we are directly responsible for what our governments do, though we do share an echo of their glory and shame. We have limited responsibility - and both words are important here.