Too many people think “Why should my taxes help other people?” as if roads and fire departments and such don’t already do that.

My thought is: if the other people in my society have better education, better opportunities, less grinding poverty, then I’m better off.

Because those other people are going to be the judges and juries and cops and school board members and business owners and doctors and restaurant staff and voters and so on, who make the world I live in work, and if they’re better off my world is better.

So even selfishness says that my taxes helping other people is a good thing. Even selfishness says wealth redistribution makes for a stronger economy which makes us all better off.

I’m a writer. I tell stories. Having an audience that can buy those stories and has the time to enjoy those stories and can read at an accomplished level directly benefits my selfish ass.

Wherever you work, if there are customers or clients involved, it helps you, too.

It’s always work remembering that that idyllic image of the 1950s that some people like to conjure up (without mentioning the racism and sexism much) was driven by high marginal taxes and a massive wealth redistribution in the form of the G.I. Bill.

It works.