There has been a huge amount of new highway construction in Central Texas over the last few years. While this new infrastructure is needed, there is no money in the state highway budget to pay for it. Consequently those roads had to be built on private money and it turns out that private money comes from Spain. So every time someone drives down one of those toll roads money leaves this country.

There are major bridges collapsing in America, New Orleans was lost because of failing levees - our infrastructure is collapsing under our feet. According to Popular Mechanics (http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4258053.html) the American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that America needs to spend $1.6 trillion dollars over the next five years to rebuild our collapsing infrastructure.

Infrastructure maintenance is just one of many places where American need to spend money, and that money is just not there. Services that need proper funding include education, public health, our park systems, the arts and research on alternative energy sources. These are just to name a few of a long laundry list of items that have been underfunded for years.

Obviously, if these services are to be provided there must be a source of funding to do so. Back in the day when we were building this nation everybody shared the cost by paying their fair share of taxes. Since that time Conservatives have managed under the guise of cutting taxes to convince Americans that they don’t need to pay for their share of the resources that we all use. They have also convinced many of us that we are not our brother’s keepers, having sold a form of Social Darwinism where the rich get richer and the poor are left to live on the streets or worse.

The Republicans push the idea that cutting taxes for the rich will cause them to reinvest those monies. History has shown that often this is not the case, or if funds are reinvested often those investments go offshore.

Ultimately by slashing taxes for the wealthy the Republicans have cheated the other 99% of Americans, those of us who’s work and money has provided the opportunities that has made it possible for a  fortunate few to become ultra-rich. Ultimately, those who have used the American system to make it to the top owe it to their fellow citizens to give something back so that others will have the same opportunities that they have been given.

What about the rest of us? Nobody likes to pay taxes. I most certainly don’t. So what? We all have a civic responsibility to carry our share of the load, to contribute to the common good and for those benefits that I have received. Properly managed, our taxes can be the best investment that we can make. They are an investment in our country and an investment in future generations.

There are those that argue that the government is a very poor manager of our funds. That private enterprise can do a better job. Yes, sometimes government bureaucracies can become bloated but recent history has shown us that private enterprise can become corrupt and at least with the government there are, or are supposed to be, oversights. Yes, our government does have it;s failings, but like Democracy it’s the worse system possible except for all the other ones.

The other day I got to wondering what ever happened to the idea of civics. Do they still teach civics in school or have they been replaced by some Conservative philosophy of dog eats dog? It seems to me that if we are to stand up to a challenging future then we can no longer live in a nation where the poor and the middle class are exploited by the most wealthy - we must once again learn that we all need to contribute to the greater good. If we fail to do so then the consequences will be felt by all, rich and poor alike.