>Every citizen should pay their taxes, which, in turn, buys them the right to be tax-paying citizens.
I have no problem whatsoever in reading this sentence. It might just be a way of thinking that is different, for those who have problems with this approach. In my case, it is just how I think about people. I find alternatives, such as the use of "he/she" very irritating (it slows down the pace of reading). Alternating uses of “he” and “she” sound highly contrived to me and sometimes make it difficult to follow the thread of what is being said.
I remember once trying say to a woman that I met on a journey that her baby was very beautiful. I suddenly realised that it was difficult in normal conversation to say very much without making an assumption (possibly incorrect) about the sex of the baby or having to ask a question. A question, in itself, might imply that I was having difficulty assessing the gender of the baby. To some, that would be seen as a kind of insult - believe me, I have heard it said. In the end, I got it in the neck because the mother of the baby replied that the baby was not beautiful, he was handsome. I have never been able to think of a baby as handsome, although I'm happy to think that one day her son would be handsome. I can't be bothered saying pleasant things about babies any more - I'll only get it wrong.
In our society where we still ritually exclude people, when I read, "The President of the United States is an important position, he carries responsibility ...." I tend to assume that "he" means "he" until it is proven beyond reasonable doubt not to be the case. That is the problem with our language.
