Thus past week Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s wife, Louise Linton, wrote the following about their tax burden: “Pretty sure the amount we sacrifice per year is a lot more than you'd be willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours. You’re adorably out of touch.”
The irony of that statement is that Linton claims that the person she is responding to on Instagram is out of touch. Well, Ms. Linton, I hate to break it to you, but you are the one who is out of touch. Paying taxes on wealth that most Americans can only dream of is not a fucking sacrifice. It is your duty as an American citizen to pay your fair share toward the common good.
The very definition of sacrifice is the destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else; something given up or lost. That says nothing about paying your damned taxes. It’s doubtful Linton will be reading this, but just in case she does, let’s throw out some actual sacrifices.
During the Great Depression many sacrifices were made. Parents would go hungry so that their children could eat. Children would drop out of school to help the family bring in a few extra dollars. Fathers would leave in search of work, hoping to send money home. Entire families were uprooted when they could no longer pay the rent. In my dad’s case, when food was short, my grandmother would somehow stretch out a hambone, eggs, and bread for a couple of weeks. Soup, beans on bread, and fried noodles were just some of her recipes. Neighbors would reach out and help each other. When a tornado knocked down my grandparent’s barn, anything that could be reused from the old barn was reused, including nails. Neighbors brought scrap lumber, nails, tools, and their labor. The barn was rebuilt, and not a single item had to be purchased. Neighbors sacrificed for each other.
During World War II the sacrifices ranged far and wide. On the home front, everything from gasoline and tires to meat and sugar was rationed, and families even gave up their family dogs for the war effort. Young men put their lives on hold to serve their country, with 407,000 of them making the ultimate sacrifice and never coming home.