Quote (Kamahl16 @ Sep 19 2014 09:26am)
This principle leaves very little room for discussion because this nation was brought up on things funded by public funds that were extracted via "theft" -- banking insurance, postal services, the military, etc. -- many of which I do not personally believe we should fund, or at least not to the extent that we do (mainly the military) but I pony up like everybody else and can say it has not hurt my work ethic at all. I consider our/my generation as hard working or harder working than any generation before it, easily.
EDIT -- I feel we've also come to a point in productivity where certain things like education funding are possible without really sacrificing all too much (plus this does have an observable return) and should consider ourselves lucky for the opportunity. Which would you prefer, a system where everybody can get educated, more often than not beyond high school as well, or a system where educated is reserved for the social elites and most people are seriously handicapped as a result of that deprivation?
The first may require heavier taxation but I'm for it.
There's plenty of room for discussion. I have no problem with helping people who need it. I have a problem with setting up massive bureaucracies rife with penchant for abuse and a dearth of oversight. I have no problem with public education. I have a problem with public servants shaking us down for more than they are worth at the point of the government's gun. Education has an enormous upside for virtually everyone, but we are NOT getting what we pay for. Is it somehow unreasonable of me to expect to get what we pay for?
Quote (duffman316 @ Sep 19 2014 12:04pm)
never understood how the anti-tax nonsense makes sense to libertarians, thank god you people have no power ~ your selfishness would destroy a country within a few decades
also social security looks like a pyramid scheme
Regardless of what I did with it afterwards, if I stuck a gun in your face and took your money, am I a thief? I'll assume you'd say yes. Now, if I hire somebody to steal from you for me through the power of my vote, how am I not still a thief? You see, with taxation, it should be a burden to all of us (or at the very least, most of us). But that is not the case. Nearly half of us have no (federal) tax burden.
Our country already IS being destroyed by selfishness... the selfishness borne of envy.