A number of posts in recent Front Porch Forums and letters to the editor have lamented the high cost of living in Vermont and how one party or the other will fix that.

Think back to Vermont of the 50s. I suspect most Vermonters lived in modest homes, had one car, probably a stick shift, hung the wash out to dry and watched TV on a small black and white set. Their RV’s were probably tents, and if they had a boat it was either a canoe or a wooden flat-iron skiff.

In the public sector schools taught the basics in classrooms that hadn’t changed in decades, technology was not even a dream. Doctors made house calls and all the technology they needed fit in the black bag. Cancer treatment was barbaric and minimally effective.

Most of us now live better, have more, and expect more than previous generations could have even dreamed of, and that has consequences.

In 2024, look at our schools and the technology they employ, the services they have to offer and the staff required to support those needs. Or think about the services and procedures available now when you get sick because of the available procedures and technologies that weren’t known in the 50s, things that can affect cures that were impossible then.

Unless we are willing to go back to a more basic lifestyle, and I don’t think we are, costs and taxes are not going to go down. Are we going to stop funding technology in our schools, technology that prepares kids for the modern workforce? Are we going to stop providing services that our kids need to make them productive citizens? Are we going to tell hospitals to ration care, or not to invest in life-saving technology so we can keep costs down to make employee health insurance cheaper? Are we going to reject supporting childcare that enables parents to go to work in a labor market that desperately needs them? What are we going to cut out?

The fact is, lowering the tax burden is only going to happen with deep cuts. Are we willing to make them?

I’ve always thought we’ve had it backwards, instead of projecting how much we think is available and then determining what to spend it on, we should be determining what our needs are, and then seek the funding to pay for them. And, in a truly caring society we would depend on a progressive tax system so those who are struggling are protected and those with more pay more.

Richard Butz

Bristol