Hi all; Re the tax laws, and their rightness or wrongness, and "right wing extremists"...
There was a time when I thought that the only valid reasons for government were the usual libertarian ones, but I've come to a certain realization that there are things worth doing that only the government can do.
It's not that I accept the usual left-wing list of government objectives, which can briefly be summarized as "make everybody wealthy without having to work", "make everybody immortal without having to die", and the ever popular "make everybody happy without responsibility for their actions".
And I'm not in favor of the usual right-wing government objectives, which can briefly be summarized as "create a military capable of defeating any combination of possible enemies, including UFOs", and the ever popular, "prepare improved plans to invade and conquer Canada". Instead, there are advances in science that will be remembered forever in the history of this species, and I'd like to see our country be the one that made them. The same with space exploration. We all know which country discovered the new world in 1492, why shouldn't the people of 2500 look back at the United States as the country that explored Mars?
Probably the only thing I liked about Kenedy was his decision to set the U.S. on a course to land a man on the moon. He made that decision as a political one, to impress the rest of the world with the United States' ability to beat the Russians. And as far as a contest goes, that's not a bad way to spend money. It beats the heck out of putting trillions of dollars into nuclear weapons that no one ever has any intention of using anyway.
The same goes for advances in physics, biology, etc. All those things are worthwhile, not for monetary or health reasons, but just for the glory of the human race. So why not have the government tax us for it?
What matters is the level of taxes. And there is no question that taxes are now unnaturally high for peacetime. But our economy and technology has grown to the point where we, as a people, generate incredible surpluses. You couldn't have taxed the 19th century U.S. with 50% taxes (or whatever the figure is now) because they would have starved to death. We don't starve because we are so efficient now. Why not blow some cash on doing things that will resound in history forever?
-- Carl |
