They spend all their money at Walmart and Target. That’s what I heard from some tax consultants I talked to today when I mentioned what economists say, that the sales tax is regressive, hurting the poor the most. I was so flabbergasted I couldn’t reply. “Us in the middle class pay for the wasteful ways of those people,” one of them went on.
I realize that this is a common view among people who are not poor or who have no concept of poverty. They don’t recognize the fact that the working poor–the lucky ones–shop at Walmart and Target to try to stretch their meager paycheck so there’s at least some food on the table that month, and so the roof stays over their heads because the rent is paid. PG&E? Water? Doctor’s visit? Maybe this month, maybe next. The less lucky poor, without jobs or homes, are the ones seeking a handout outside of Walmart, because they don’t have enough money to cover a purchase inside. Yes, some of it goes to alcohol or cigarettes, which are the only comfort for a portion of those we see on the streets. But ALL the poor share a common problem with the middle class: as sales taxes rise, it becomes harder and harder to buy necessities, pushing more and more vulnerable people toward the edge of the abyss.
It frightens me that several governmental agencies, state and local, plan to seek an increase in sales tax this November. And it saddens me that individuals like those I talked to today are widening the division in our society by perpetuating false stereotypes and fostering a “we” vs. “them” attitude. Which of these two situations bothers me more? I don’t know.