MONEY: Empty Pockets on a Trillion Dollars a Year

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country. That would relieve states and cities of a demand that they can no longer meet without starving other programs for funds. It also would end the scandalous situation under which citizens of states such as New York and Illinois in effect subsidize low tax and welfare levels in other areas, predominantly the South, whose poor still flock to the high-welfare states in order to collect more money.

In the end, though, no amount of administrative reform is likely to save Americans from the necessity of paying higher taxes. The nation is not running out of money so much as it has misallocated its resources so badly that it now faces a staggering bill for the public services that citizens have a right to expect. Tax and governmental reforms can and must apportion that bill more fairly; to the extent that the taxpayers' revolt is a protest against inequity, it is only too justified. Americans, however, will have to get uised to the idea that a greater portion of the country's wealth must be devoted to the public sector if they are to enjoy clean air, safe streets and better health and education. Paying the bill cannot be made pleasant. By reflecting on the observation of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that taxes are the price of civilization, it can perhaps be made at least tolerable.