Last night, in a glorious throw back to college, I went to the Ani DiFranco concert at the Chicago Theatre.

It was exactly how I remembered it, with just as much screaming and “I love you”s from the crowd. And DiFranco held up her end of the bargain with political commentary in between guitar tunings.

Midway through the show, she stopped fiddling with the strings and asked, “Now, what is the government for if not to collect money through taxes and spend it on things people need?” It led her directly into a song about hurricane Katrina.

A perfect example, according to DiFranco, of what happens when governments fail to fulfill their basic job requirement.

Tonight, the town hall debate will likely focus on economic issues. And, in true McCain style, the Republican candidate will emphasize how much Obama spent in Illinois, how much he intends to spend as President and how taxes, under his government, will surely rise.

He is trying to scare you. You see, under a McCain administration, governments don’t collect taxes, especially from the rich, and they don’t spend money on the things people need.

According to the Republican candidate, taxation, especially of the rich, cripples jobs, causes corporate flight and endangers economic growth.

This kind of thinking encourages a race to the bottom. We can’t hope to compete with countries that charge virtually no taxes for corporate entities. And a certain number of American companies will choose, every year, to ship their operations overseas to take advantage of that tax haven.

Lowering the corporate tax rate ten percentage points won’t stop that from happening.

A better plan is to use taxation to support an educated, specialized workforce that can compete for the jobs that require training, skills and an advanced understanding of production and marketing.

This plan relies on affordable education, secondary education, health care, housing etc. The list is long. Obama, while raising taxes for the rich, says he will redirect the money that comes in to exactly these kinds of social services.

Anyone who has ever been to the hospital or attended a public school or hoped to go to college knows that each average citizen needs things they can’t pay for on our own.

This election should not be about saving a few dollars in taxes, but about demanding the right kind of spending once the money is in government’s hands.