Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Originally posted by: Steeplerot
It's not stealing, it is showing respect and moving up from third world status.
Stealing from the working class to pay for what you and your family should be providing is "respect"? :roll:
CsG
LOL stealing eh? the government has powers you don't have, like taxing and redistributing look at your constitution you claim to respect.
As for the federal government's specific power to tax, it is found in Article I Section 8, where the Congress is given the right to "lay and collect taxes . . . to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States." The government provides a vast array of services and infrastructure such as roads, schools, the banking system, port facilities, air traffic control, hydroelectric dams, communications satellites, R&D into a vast array of technologies such as radar and semiconductors -- not to mention the most basic functions of establishing and vindicating your basic commercial rights in property and contracts. Is that all stealing??
In other words, your "hard earned money" wasn't earned in a vacuum. You aren't Robinson Crusoe -- as proven by the fact that you don't live like he did. The commercial enterprise where you work -- or that you own, as the case may be -- operates within a society that has a vast public infrastructure that someone has to pay for. But of course, that vast public infrastructure also creates vast opportunities such that the taxes you pay reap you tremendous returns. The proof of that is the fact that the twenty wealthiest nations on earth -- as measured by per capita GDP -- all have an extensive public sector. Every one of them.
"Minimalist government" countries, With no stealing, with low taxes and little public investment in infrastructure and government services, are impoverished cesspools -- except for a handful of wealthy elites.
The specific justification for our "safety net" is right there in black and white: Congress and the states have made a judgment that very substantial numbers of homeless, jobless, destitute and desperate people pose a potential threat of "domestic distubances" -- you know, food riots and such. Preventing such "domestic disturbance" is deemed to be a legitimate matter related to providing for both the "common defense and general welfare" of the United States. They may one day add health care to this list. Watch out!!!!
