On Fri, 2003-02-07 at 17:01, DvB wrote: > Ron Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > On Fri, 2003-02-07 at 03:59, James Buchanan wrote: > > > > On Thu, Feb 06, 2003 at 11:34:51PM -0600, DvB wrote: > > > > > "James Buchanan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > > > > > > > > > Famine victims OK, but nobody has mentioned the people living in > > > > > > poverty in America. Boost welfare, more education funding, > > > subsidise > > > > > > pay rises for the lowest paid workers... ooops, America's budget > > > all > > > > > > gone ;-) > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > <sarcasm> > > > > > Of course! If we spent that much, people with enough money to have > > > > > significant amounts of it in taxable stock accounts wouldn't be > > > able to > > > > > keep it all! > > > > > </sarcasm> > > > > > > > > Yeah, after all it's not their money .. they just worked hard to > > > earn > > > > it. > > > > > > I've lost the thread here, I don't really "get" the joke - can someone > > > explain this for me please. Maybe it's because I'm not American. :-) > > > > It seems as if there's a lot of (US) Americans on the list who think > > that Federal projects are a very good way to solve many/most of > > society's ills, and thus taxes are a Good Thing. Likewise, there > > seems to be another faction that thinks that gov't mostly can't find > > it's arse with both hands, a map, a flashlight (electric torch), and > > GPS, and thus excess taxes are a Bad Thing, because, by and large, > > the Private & NGO sectors can do a more efficient job with the money. > > In that case, you should probably move to do away with the > government. The government is, by definition, a way for society to pool > its resources for the common good (mostly by providing services like law > enforcement, education, health care, utilities and > transportation). Governments also aren't normally able to pull money out > of their arses (even if they could find them with both hands, a map, a > flashlight and a GPS) and, hence, rely on specific sources of income > (mostly taxes) to implement and run these services. [snip large rant]
Note I used the word "excess" when referring to that position on The Issue Of Government Competence. Only anarchists believe that government should not exist, and American conservatives & libertarians are most emphatically *not* anarchists. They more or less believe in a limited Federal government. -- +------------------------------------------------------------+ | Ron Johnson, Jr. Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Jefferson, LA USA http://members.cox.net/ ron.l.johnson | | | | "For me and windows it became a matter of easy to start | | with, and becoming increasingly difficult to be produc- | | tive as time went on, and if something went wrong very | | difficult to fix, compared to linux's large over head | | setting up and learning the system with ease of use and | | the increase in productivity becoming larger the longer I | | use the system." | | Rohan Nicholls , The Netherlands | +------------------------------------------------------------+ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
