SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
A4
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EDITORIAL
A moment
we can’t
forget
No student attending Baker High School now
had yet been born on that sunny September
morning that changed America forever.
Twenty years.
Two decades.
There are many ways to measure the divide
between today and the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11, 2001. Some are purely numerical. Others, like
the reference to current students at BHS, refl ect
this span of time in a way perhaps more surpris-
ing than straight statistics.
Nearly one generation of Americans has no
memory of that day.
For those of us who were alive, and old enough
to form specifi c and lasting recollections about
the moment we heard what had happened —
and what was still happening — the memories
likely remain vivid.
The signifi cance of even epochal events such
as 9/11 inevitably fades, of course.
The years pass and they yield their dismal
harvest of fresh tragedies and historic happen-
ings.
The past 20 years have hardly been defi cient
in either category. We have endured the losses
of some of the best among us in Afghanistan, a
direct result from the 9/11 attacks, and in Iraq.
We have weathered the worst economic episodes
since the Great Depression.
And of course we remain mired in the most
severe pandemic in a century.
Yet that September morning remains one of
the defi ning events in America’s history, com-
parable, to cite a few examples within living
memory, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on
Dec. 7, 1941, the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, and the explosion of
the space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986.
Much as the images from those terrible days
have become ingrained in our national memory,
so too have the incomparable scenes of those
two great towers, landmarks in our biggest city,
ablaze and eventually crumbling.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Who really pays federal taxes?
By JARED DILLIAN
The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy
Center recently released a report saying
that 61% of U.S. households had paid
no federal income tax in 2020, up from
44% in 2019, as the pandemic led to
high unemployment and loss of income.
Although the number will likely revert
to the mid-40% range over time, now is
probably a good time to have a discus-
sion about what the right percentage of
people paying taxes should be.
But fi rst, it’s always good to point out
that while about half of Americans don’t
pay income taxes, almost everyone who
is employed pays payroll taxes of some
sort in the form of the 6.2% that is with-
held from the fi rst $142,800 of income.
It’s important to draw the distinction
between income taxes and payroll taxes.
Philosophically speaking, payroll taxes
are intended to fund one’s own social
security. Income taxes are intended to
fund government spending, which has
been increasing every year. The burden
of funding the government falls on a
smaller number of taxpayers. The top
20% of taxpayers paid 78% of federal
income taxes in 2020, up from 68% in
2019, according to the Tax Policy Center.
What is the right number of people
who should be exempt from paying
income taxes? Most reasonable people
should agree that number is far less
than 61%. A household in the 61st
percentile of income makes just under
$90,000 a year. Almost nobody would
consider a household income of $90,000
as affl uent, but there is plenty of room
to contribute. Consider that the median
household income is $68,400, and that
Bureau of Labor Statistics data from
2017 show that a typical household
with $73,500 in pre-tax income has over
$6,000 in savings and over $3,000 in
entertainment expenses.
Except for the truly indigent, which
I would characterize as households
making less than $28,000 a year, we can
all chip in. The idea of someone paying
no income taxes is offensive to us all, no
matter what their wealth and income.
They don’t have to pay the same amount
in percentage terms, but everyone
should have a small fi nancial stake in
being a U.S. citizen. It’s what’s called
“having skin in the game.”
This has very little to do with
revenue generation (although if the
government really was interested in
raising more revenue, it would be easier
to do it with the middle class than with
the rich). It’s the principle that very
little is asked of U.S. citizens in terms of
participating in civic society. There is no
military draft or compulsory service. Vot-
ing is not mandatory. All we should ask
is that we all do our part and contribute
a small amount to the cost of running
the government. If people did, they
might feel differently about its size and
scope. Think of it as Homeowners As-
sociation, or HOA dues — nobody likes
paying them, but we do.
From a political standpoint, getting
everyone with a household income above
$28,000 to pay their fair share of taxes
would be very diffi cult to accomplish. It
is political suicide to even suggest raising
taxes on the poor or middle class. And
people have different ideas of fairness.
Some think it is unfair that the wealthy
pay preferential rates on capital gains
and dividends (we lowered those taxes
years ago, for good reason). I happen to
think it is unfair that 61% of Americans
have no income tax liability. Whether you
think it’s fair or not probably depends
where you sit on the political spectrum.
Global leaders are currently hav-
ing discussions about implementing a
minimum tax rate of 15% for corpora-
tions. Why not a minimum tax rate for
individuals? It doesn’t have to be much
— even 5% would do. When you have a
fi nancial stake in something, you tend to
care more about what happens to that
thing. A small contribution would cause
people to be much more concerned about
how money is spent in D.C., which would
be a good thing.
The next time you hear someone tell
you with great indignation that they’re
a taxpayer, remember that there’s a 61%
chance that they are lying.
Jared Dillian is the editor and pub-
lisher of The Daily Dirtnap, investment
strategist at Mauldin Economics, and the
author of “Street Freak” and “All the Evil
of This World.”
High school gym + loud teen boys = normal
The boys were high school boys,
a distinctive subspecies, and one in-
clined to moderately obnoxious, but
generally good-natured, behavior.
Especially when they’re in a
pack, a situation which, in boys as
in, say, hyenas, tends to suppress
individual attitudes and encourage
group action.
This bunch fulfi lled that role with
enthusiasm.
I was in a place new to me — sit-
ting on the blue plastic bleachers in
the gym at McCall-Donnelly High
School in McCall, Idaho.
My vertebrae, which tolerate the
torture of fl at plastic benches with a
bit less equanimity during each suc-
cessive ordeal, grew increasingly stiff
as the afternoon progressed.
I was there, me and my abused
backbone, with my wife, Lisa, and
our son, Max. We were there to
watch my daughter, Olivia, who’s a
freshman at Baker, play volleyball.
The gym was relatively tranquil
during Olivia’s JV match.
But in the intermission prior to
the start of the varsity match, the
student section began to fi ll in, with
a couple dozen Vandals supporters,
most of them male, taking up the
fi rst few rows near the net.
Before the fi rst serve, a school
offi cial recited over the PA system a
reminder about sportsmanship. The
wording was somewhat different
JAYSON
JACOBY
from what Oregon high schools use
but the message to fans was the
same — be respectful of everyone,
players, coaches, even referees.
(This pregame ritual insinuated
itself into high school sports some
time during what seems to me now
the inconceivably long span of years
that have elapsed since I got my
own diploma. I am no doubt misled
slightly by nostalgia, that consum-
mate conniver, but as I recall it, in
my youth such announcements were
deemed unnecessary, the assump-
tion being that the spectators were
capable of dealing with untoward
behavior themselves, should that be
necessary. As it sometimes was. And
as they sometimes did.)
I had chosen, for no particular
reason, to sit near the net. This put
us pretty near what became the
Vandals’ cheering section.
As the varsity match moved
through its fi rst set, I noticed that
the students, after gobbling the
sandwiches, chicken strips and other
food most of them had brought (I
was tempted to ask where they
bought the sandwiches, which
looked pretty scrumptious to me),
began to focus more on what was
happening on the court below.
Also they started chanting.
Much of this was as indecipher-
able to me as much of the music re-
corded over the past couple decades.
The slogans must have been part
of a school tradition, as none of the
students seemed to struggle to get
the words right.
But then a couple of the boys
started uttering a sort of yelp/scream
hybrid right at the moment the
Baker player was poised to serve.
This struck me as a rather
blatant disregard for the sports-
manship policy, which included an
admonition to not, in effect, hassle
(a more bureaucratic phrase was
used) individual players, coaches
or offi cials.
A few minutes later I noticed
that the school offi cial who had
read the policy was talking with
the lead referee, on the other side
of the gym from where we (and the
boys) were sitting. After a brief con-
ference the offi cial started walking
in our direction.
I whispered to Lisa that he was
going to remind the boys about
what the school considered proper
behavior.
I couldn’t hear clearly what he
said, over the squeak of sneakers on
hardwood and the cheers, but the
offi cial was smiling during his short
speech. I gathered that the essence
of his message was that the boys
should have fun, and make plenty
of noise if they liked, but to ensure
their decibels were directed at back-
ing the Vandals and not harassing
the Bulldogs.
The boys mostly complied.
I heard a couple of pre-serve
yelps — albeit quieter yelps.
But most of the noise echoed
from the rafters during the many
exciting rallies or after the Vandals
had scored a point on their way to a
3-0 sweep.
I haven’t spent much time in
high school gyms over the past year
and a half.
Most of us have had the same
experience.
And so I was happy to spend a
few hours in a situation that, before
I had ever read the word “coro-
navirus,” was so normal as to be
unremarkable.
These days, anything normal is
sort of remarkable — a reminder
that life as we once knew it has
continued despite the incredible
upheavals we have endured since
March 2020.
I had a similar experience several
days later in the Union High School
gym, a wonderful example of 1950s
construction that I had somehow
managed not to visit.
With its glossy polished wood
bleachers — complete with back
rests that my vertebrae were smit-
ten with — its steep steps that
make current building codes seem
draconian, and its slightly frayed but
still jubilant banner celebrating the
Bobcats’ multiple state titles in 1949,
the UHS gym is a gem.
As we walked out into the slight
chill of the early September dusk
after Olivia’s volleyball match, I
imagined the winter evenings in
distant decades when fans clomped
through the snow to watch their
basketball teams play. I heard the
phantom rumble that surely would
have been audible from outside.
I thought of them in their heavy
coats, little clouds of condensation in
their wake as they walked to their
cars in the frigid twilight after the
fi nal buzzer, replaying the key shots
and rebounds and steals while they
were fresh.
I relished something as simple as
sitting in a gym and watching kids
play a game.
And I appreciated that a pan-
demic, for all the havoc it can wreak,
is incapable of suppressing the
enthusiasm of teenage boys, fueled
by sandwiches and heavily sugared
drinks served in cups large enough
to water cattle.
Jayson Jacoby is editor of the
Baker City Herald.