'the taxpayer' as a language of class hate

[© tweed]

one of the most evocative things my man Richard Seymour has ever written is on this topic.  the use of 'the taxpayer' in the dominant dialog.  he points out that it is designed to make us all think of ourselves as owners that need to protect our property from some undeserving and insurgent other: typically blacks, homeless, etc.  

of course the important fact is, a) everyone pays taxes, including homeless people when they buy cigarettes, and b) in a functioning democracy, we would all set tax policy and brackets and etc. according to our own collective conception of what is 'fair', in order to enact the programs that we decided we wanted, and so on.  and April 15th would be a day of celebration and not protest (borrowing a bit from Chomsky on this last point).

here's the Seymour blog post.
http://leninology.blogspot.com/2011/06/taxpayer.html

[Tetro Kornbluth]

This is a good post.

[greenforest32]

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+1. Greed as embodied in the desire for profit in everything is truly disgusting.

[Gustaf]

I don't think that's inherent in how one uses the taxpayer. On the contrary, the term serves to remind us that we all pay taxes, i.e. there is no such thing as a free lunch.

When people demand things such as free education or free healthcare, what they mean is that the taxpayer should foot the bill. Thus, it lies in the interest of the political right to evoke the taxpayer as being all of us.

So I can't say I recognize this usage as all that typical.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

I don't think that's inherent in how one uses the taxpayer. On the contrary, the term serves to remind us that we all pay taxes, i.e. there is no such thing as a free lunch.

When people demand things such as free education or free healthcare, what they mean is that the taxpayer should foot the bill. Thus, it lies in the interest of the political right to evoke the taxpayer as being all of us.

So I can't say I recognize this usage as all that typical.

You only have to think of at least one occasion where you have heard this argument: "I am a taxpayer, the government funds X, I dislike X THEREFORE I AM TEH PERSECUTED!!!111111" (slight exaggeration but only slight, I have listened to the Irish equivalent of what Americans call "Talk Radio").

[Gustaf]

I don't think that's inherent in how one uses the taxpayer. On the contrary, the term serves to remind us that we all pay taxes, i.e. there is no such thing as a free lunch.

When people demand things such as free education or free healthcare, what they mean is that the taxpayer should foot the bill. Thus, it lies in the interest of the political right to evoke the taxpayer as being all of us.

So I can't say I recognize this usage as all that typical.

You only have to think of at least one occasion where you have heard this argument: "I am a taxpayer, the government funds X, I dislike X THEREFORE I AM TEH PERSECUTED!!!111111" (slight exaggeration but only slight, I have listened to the Irish equivalent of what Americans call "Talk Radio").

That strikes me as a bit of a strawman. Yeah, some people are idiots, sure.

The way I hear taxpayers used in what can be termed discourse is more along the lines of "is it fair to expect the taxpayer to finance your laziness/art hobby/etc"

Or like "this project was implemented by the government at enormous cost to the taxpayer"

The point in these examples is to remind everyone who pays taxes (i.e. everyone) that they are actually paying for this.

[Redalgo]

I bristle a bit at the though of coming off here as a Moderate Hero, but I do not consider usage of the word "taxpayer" by capitalists in these contexts all that different than the socialists' use of the word "workers." In both instances, what we see is an appeal to the public's common perception of fairness insofar as it is felt on both sides that some folks are unjustly over-compensated for their contributions to society, some are being under-compensated, and certain social groups seem to be exploiting (or at least have intent to exploit) others. There is a reasonable amount of concern on the part of all parties involved that forms of capital are not distributed as they ideally should be. It is not the language of class hate, in my opinion, so much as the language of politics subtly infused with subjective interpretations of reality and morality.

I concur with Gustaf that invoking the taxpayer is not inherently a veiled statement about what is fair - it heavily depends on the context in which it is used - and the same could be said of people who choose to invoke "the workers." Yet at the same time, I also believe there is great power in utilizing symbolic capital in political discourse. Referencing the taxpayers can and often is what the rest of the posters here are discussing. Although I do not believe in the primacy of class struggle in politics and consider it a simplistic way for one to conceptualize social conflict as a whole, carefully chosen words can be very potent weapons to wield in day-to-day battles for influence - weapons for trying to win over the hearts and minds of millions.

[Хahar 🤔]

Seeing reference to "the taxpayer" reminds me of the Prussian census suffrage system.

[Nichlemn]

I bristle a bit at the though of coming off here as a Moderate Hero, but I do not consider usage of the word "taxpayer" by capitalists in these contexts all that different than the socialists' use of the word "workers." In both instances, what we see is an appeal to the public's common perception of fairness insofar as it is felt on both sides that some folks are unjustly over-compensated for their contributions to society, some are being under-compensated, and certain social groups seem to be exploiting (or at least have intent to exploit) others. There is a reasonable amount of concern on the part of all parties involved that forms of capital are not distributed as they ideally should be. It is not the language of class hate, in my opinion, so much as the language of politics subtly infused with subjective interpretations of reality and morality.

I concur with Gustaf that invoking the taxpayer is not inherently a veiled statement about what is fair - it heavily depends on the context in which it is used - and the same could be said of people who choose to invoke "the workers." Yet at the same time, I also believe there is great power in utilizing symbolic capital in political discourse. Referencing the taxpayers can and often is what the rest of the posters here are discussing. Although I do not believe in the primacy of class struggle in politics and consider it a simplistic way for one to conceptualize social conflict as a whole, carefully chosen words can be very potent weapons to wield in day-to-day battles for influence - weapons for trying to win over the hearts and minds of millions.

Good post. Everyone uses language to frame things how they want.