>venomous contempt some on this board display
Emotions tend to run high on things like politics and religion, where dogma is more important than fact. I think that emotions are the main factor people use to establish their political positions, despite scholarly work supporting one position or another. Basically, it comes down to what people personally consider valuable - and fair.
In all fairness, you should admit that you are guilty of the same intolerance and contempt for others' political positions that you decry here. Don't forget, it was you who called me a "narrow minded red neck", accused me of running a "blue blood scam" and invited me to leave the country of my birth because I did not think it was perfect! And you think you have the right ideas for civil society?
The emotions you see displayed here against socialists is a result of the frustration non-socialists feel because their basic human rights are being violated. It is hard to understand why socialists feel they have a right to dictate how and why our money should be spent. This frustration is proportional to the amount of our money the socialists try to spend. When this amount reaches a number that is higher than what we are left with, you can damn well expect the rest of us to get pissed off!
If, on the other hand, socialists could come up with an explanation for their confiscatory policies that would satisfy the rest of us, maybe that anger would be reduced. What argument can you supply to convince us
1) that a person earning any given amount per year should pay tax while a person earning more gets any benefit from a government program?
2) why a person on welfare automatically gets a sofa and a TV, when I couldn't afford either until I was in my thirties?
3) why a person on UI should get a year paid maternity leave, while the gainfully-employed have to pay exorbitant premiums?
4) why we should pay a bureaucracy to regulate every aspect of our lives without any sort of measurements of the benefits?
Look. I can tolerate some compromise for the sake of satisfying some of my neighbours' misguided ideals for the 'equitable' redistribution of wealth. There is a limit, however, and that limit has been surpassed. I, for one, hope that this election may start to reverse that!
-g |
