Harvey, I agree with the idea of social responsibility. I don't mind paying taxes for the services I use or might use. However, it oversteps its bounds when it requires that I live and work for the sake of your lifestyle or existence. Your use of "greed" implies a false dichotomy where greed is bad, and generosity is good. This is often where conflicting ideologies, bad policy, and guilt complexes about money arise from.
Productive and counter-productive members of society can be greedy. Greed is merely the desire to accumulate and retain money. Which begs the question, what is money? For productive members of a society, money is a measurement of the value that you created for the society through the exchange of goods and services. For counter-productive members of a society, money is a measurement of the value that you have removed from the society by the redistribution of wealth. To acquire money from being productive is virtuous. So to become wealthy from being productive is to have served a society well. To acquire money from being counter-productive is immoral. To become wealthy from being counter-productive is to have embezzled value from society. So to tell me that I should be taxed so that you can relax in your old age is to say that some of the ant's food should be forcibly given to the grasshopper who did not plan for winter. I simply don't believe that your need is a valid claim to my resources. I do not exist to serve you, and I would not ask the next generation of tax payers to exist to serve me. I spit at the feet of any man who desires such slavery. The only valid circumstance in which you would have a claim to my resources is if your earning ability in society was hindered by serving the society itself. This would include any productive member not being paid equally for equal work, and being restricted from having jobs, property, or voting rights. This would also include disability suffered from service to the society, such as veterans and injured workers. Regarding your border-closing idea... better yet, let us keep the border open, and makes these people our citizens and allow them to be productive members of society. You may not remember the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, but it serves to remind Americans from whence they came: Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. >From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" It is we who are the immigrants, and it is hypocrisy to shut the door on them. Sincerely, Steve Topletz _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
