I certainly pay taxes, which I assume is what you mean by 'sharing'. I don't really care about the amount, tho I wish the process were simpler. I have had errors in my returns for like three of the last four years, causing a great deal of worry and confusion. as I said I don't really feel like I suffer to get the money.
One of my elderly relatives lost his lifetime savings in the dot com bust. his response was to apologize to his wife, stop day trading, and resume his life work of veterinary medicine, on a part time basis. to me it seems he gave up on the idea of wealth as a path to happiness and resumed the experience of meaningful work as a path towards a fulfilling life. i hope to respond with comparable equanimity if I have a similar experience. Is there some other society you wish you'd been born into rather that the one you were? On Dec 11, 2012 10:35 AM, "R A Fonda" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Chris, > > I find this a very congenial response: > > On 12/11/2012 1:04 PM, Chris Austin-Lane wrote: > > Can one's belief in personal ownership be an attachment, a hindrance to > the mind's freedom? > > No doubt, but I found poverty and concerns about how to provide for my > family to have been a much greater distraction. > > perhaps we shouldn't argue politics and tax policy here? > > Such topics are important, not because we can solve or settle anything > here (or elsewhere, for that matter) but rather because Joe, for instance, > considers ones views on such matters to be indications of a person's > spiritual 'state' ... I do too, but from a very different perspective. > > reasonable people do disagree about these issues. > > > Indeed. > > Personally I am grateful to have been born into a society that > > It is only natural that you approve of a society that fills your > rice-bowl; when/if you experience that social order 'sharing' what YOU have > earned through doing something other people valued enough to PAY you for, > then you may attain a different perspective. All the talk of 'sharing' > obfuscates the fact that SOMEBODY had to give up whatever is given by > society (and don't forget the waste that manifests itself as such > 'side-effects' as wars and millions of people in jail) and the very people > (such as Jon Corzine) who ought to have to give up ill-gotten wealth are > the last to suffer such extractions. The great bulk of government is paid > for by ordinary workers through hidden taxes such as inflation, fuel and > sales taxes, and all that sort of thing. > > RAF > > >
