The rallying cry of those who rebelled against the United Kingdom was “no taxation without representation.” This was true back then, but we now fortunately live in a nation where those who are taxed have representation. The thing is, though, the second part of the equation is whether or not the taxation is being spent on behalf of its constituents responsibly and constructively. That is to say, while nobody really likes paying taxes, people are fine with paying their fair share if they are the beneficiaries of those taxes being utilized for the betterment of the community that they are an integral part of.
When we examine the case of the United States, we see that the national government's fiscal budget is substantial, which would be acceptable if we believed that those funds were well spent. Fortunately, for Americans, the budget of those monies as spent is fairly transparent, though because this country’s representatives believe that there are areas of the budget that should be secret, it is not fully divulged. Still, at the end of the day, the budget does demonstrate where the money has been allocated, and thus, in fairness to those who are responsible for how that money has been divvied up, we can fairly judge America by where it spends its money.
This signifies based on that budget, that America believes first and foremost that nothing is more important than its military, because it spends a gargantuan amount of money on its armed forces, who are positioned all over the world, as if to say, the world is a very dangerous place and it is America’s responsibility to impose law and order all over the world. So too, the upshot of having all that money spent on the military is that it’s going to be awfully hard to continue to justify such unless America gets involved in wars and conflicts all over the world, which thus serves to justify that expense continuously, as long as America can find something to fight about and believe that it serves the American taxpayer’s interest.
Additionally, because American governance believes it has no responsibility to the people to operate under some reasonable fiscal restraint, it thus runs a massive deficit, which means that those that own that debt, insist upon “tribute” or interest payments to that debt, of which, America devotes an enormous amount of money to service that debt, but gets no closer to paying off that debt, year after year, but rather that debt keeps on increasing. This seems to say that it’s good for this nation to be in debt, but it has to be recognized that many a person who is deeply in debt ends up in bankruptcy, which seems to imply that nations that do not keep their fiscal house in order are the same that will have to eventually debase their currency, restructure, or default.
In sum, the people have a right to weigh in as to whether or not their tax money is being spent not only responsibly but also whether there is an overall vision that makes sense and is sustainable, because when that is found to be lacking, the judgment of the people will fairly reflect their dismay.