These kinds of numbers games are really not much help in clarifying issues. Oregon collects less in taxes per capita than Washington, Nevada, California, and the United States on average. Our spending on higher education--the future of many of our young people--is a fraction of what Washington and California and comparable states spend. Those states are looking to the future. We are facing a budget crisis in the years ahead. Will we resuscitate higher education--the surest way to a higher income for our young people? Will we climb out of the dark basement we are in with respect to our shameful high school graduation rate? I believe that younger people have a new attitude toward taxes and social wealth--a little more like northern Europe and a little less like the wild west. More and less expensive education, better health care for all, a floor for the poor, more equity, and a tax structure that makes sense and supports all this and asks corporations to pay their fair share.