While recently watching the Schoolhouse Rock series on DVD with my children, I was taken aback by one of the shorts from the collection, "Tax Man Max," which I've posted below.
It's obviously a fascinating artifact given the "no tax" mantra that pervades modern-day American politics and discourse, a knee-jerk position I've blogged about previously here.
Were it to air today, I could very well imagine many people being enraged by it. For some, it might well qualify as propaganda—and, worse, propaganda focused on indoctrinating our children!
I have little doubt it was made with genuine sincerity and all good intentions. It is a reflection of a time when there was a stronger sense of civic responsibility and even "sacrifice" in the American citizenry. The animated short effectively makes the very point I tried to make in my earlier post—that taxes play an important role in providing services and creating a sense of community in a society. As I said earlier, it amazes me that people expect our government to wage war, take care of our service men and women, improve schools, and build better roads, yet feel they shouldn't need to pay a dime for it.
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