Yes. It seems just. Its called a social compact. People with popular opinions don't need protection of free speech as much as people with unpopular opinions. People with lots of money don't have to worry about being homeless as much as the poor. Government in the United States is founded on the notion of protecting the least as much as enabling the most. Liberté, égalité, fraternité.
All taxes are a redistribution of wealth. It is stupid to pretend otherwise. But it is the price of living in a civilization. Government comes from the desire of a people to protect and enhance itself. Establish common defense. Reduce friction between groups. Ensure equality before the law. If it is to genuinely serve the people that supposedly comprise it, it must serve all of them, not just some of them. And that requires sacrifices of everyone involved. You talk about taxes being a "disincentive to work". That is total bullshit. If someone offers me a job at $100,000 a year here in Portland I'm going to jump at it. It would put me in a higher tax bracket so I'd not only be paying more in taxes, I'd be paying a larger percentage of my salary in taxes. But you know what? I don't care. Sure I may look at my pay stub and grumble about the amount taken out. I may fantasize about what I could do with the money that was taken out in taxes. But I'm still going to end up bring home more than I bring home now. And if those taxes are going to make better schools for my daughter, if they are going to provide better health care for less money and they are going to improve the future of my state and country, then I'm damn happy to pay them. You don't get to just say "it's my money" like it magically appeared in your pocket without any influence from anything else in the world. The job you have and the money you make is a result of a huge number of factors of which you and your hard work is only one. It depends on the history of our nation, it depends on the natural resources of our land, it depends on the education you received as a child, it depends on the immunizations you got that were developed with public funding, it depends on clean water, clean air and fertile land, it depends on the taxes paid out and invested for the generations before you. In short...its not just about you. You are the happy beneficiary of all the work and toil and thoughtful planning that has come before you. And it depends even on the unchosen circumstance of how, where and to whom you were born. All of this has come together to create a place where you can use the gifts given to you and the platform built for you to put in hard work and be rewarded for it. But that does not excuse you from giving back and you are a unpatriotic prick if you think it does. It's not just about you. Judah On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 8:02 PM, Robert Munn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Why does it bother me that some politician in Washington wants to take my > money and hand it to someone else? It's my money. Democrats seems to think > that my money is their money to do with whatever they like. All they have to > do is raise taxes and take it from me. > > Oh sure, they'll have loads of great things to do with that money- mostly > giving it away in checks to the people who vote for them. Does that seem > fair to you, does that seem just? It seems like a bad deal to me. The issue, > just so we're clear, isn't the money- it is the choice of what to do with > the money. My daughter wants to buy some pigs and mango trees, and maybe a > simple home for poor people in Africa. If Barack Obama gets elected, I'm > going to have to tell my daughter that she can't buy those pigs and mango > trees and that home, because Barack Obama took that money and sent it to > some slacker kid washing dishes for minimum wage in his college cafeteria so > he could have pocket change for weekend parties. > > Again I ask, does that seem fair to you, does that seem just? > > > On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 5:09 PM, Dana wrote: > >> so again... why does this idea bother you so much. You waste a lot of >> energy posting about this, you know. >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:274725 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
