They are coming. They are on their way. You can’t avoid them; they will find you. In a few days, W-2s and 1099s will appear in our mailboxes and email inboxes. Many of us dread it, while the rest of us really dread it.
Yes, soon it will be tax time. That means gathering all of your forms and receipts and heading off to pay a tax professional. Or you can sweat it out, staring at the computer, trying to decipher IRS doublespeak on your own.
Early birds will get right to it while procrastinators will be up late the night before they are due.
We hope we don’t owe and keep our fingers crossed for a return. Not only does the process irritate us, we really don’t like giving up more of our money to the government.
While I also want to keep as much of my paycheck as possible, there are some things I don’t mind paying for. I’m happy when my taxes go for things such as national defense, education, law enforcement and roads. Our tax money, while not always spent wisely, make our lives safe, comfortable, and prosperous.
After we hit the submit button or drop the returns into the mailbox, we exhale a big sigh of relief.
We grumble about how much we pay, but don’t spend a lot of time giving it another thought. But maybe we should.
Theoretically, tax money should be used to improve our society and grow the economy. Taxes can also deter negative behavior or promote things like saving for retirement or investing in education.
Along with tax policy, we also don’t spend a lot of time talking or thinking about monetary policy or Keynesian economics. Are your eyes glazing over yet? Do discussions of economics give you the cold sweats or put you to sleep?
Most of the time, thinking about and understanding of the economy is limited to just a few considerations. We might think of employment. Do we have a job? Is it a good job? We also frame the health of the larger economy in terms of our income and the price of gas. We might go as far as to look at the performance of the stock market as an indication of how the economy is doing. But even that, at best, gives us an incomplete picture on the health of the economy.
It is important for us as citizens to understand economic concepts. This includes microeconomic topics such as supply and demand, elasticity, and how economic actors make decisions.
Macroeconomic concepts such as tax policy, trade, and banking are also important to understand. Then we can consider how geopolitical events impact our national economy, our hometown of Columbus, and our own wallets.
Economic literacy and awareness are critical for our own individual financial survival, too.
I don’t trust the so-called experts and gurus on the radio and television. I’m not sure they know what they are talking about; it seems like they are always trying to sell me something. It’s pretty clear that some of our elected officials don’t have a clue when it comes to basic economic concepts. As far as the reporters and analysts on the financial networks, they face no consequences when they are wrong.
I would rather rely on my own thoughts and ideas. I am not always right — but neither are they.
Aaron Miller is one of The Republic’s community columnists and all opinions expressed are those of the writer. He has a doctorate in history and is an associate professor of history at Ivy Tech Community College — Columbus. Send comments to [email protected].
