>> Unless you bring up a family yourself, I think it's a tad hypocritical to put the "selfish" label on others. <<
i'm still in my twenties. get back to me when i'm 40 and if i haven't raised a family by then you can call me selfish.
>> Trouble is most families now have two wage earners. Initially this was OK because it meant twice the wealth for the family to enjoy. Trouble is demand for better housing just meant house prices doubled. Rents of course follow suit. Now we are in the position where both partners have to work just to afford a "starter home" or just rent an apartment. It's OK if the grand parents and family members are still around to help out looking after kids, but the "nuclear family" has been fragmented in many cases. <<
you've just articulated my whole problem with free trade. free trade lowers wages for average americans. this encourages women to enter the workforce, diluting the pool of workers even more, driving down wages even further. free trade also leads to open borders so immigrants come spilling in (legal or not) diluting the workforce even more--which of course leads to even lower wages. in 1950 88% of women with children under six were home with their kids. today 64% of women with children under six are out in the workforce. so we've done an almost total 180 and that is precisely why the family structure has disintegrated and our society has rapidly degraded. of course all this focus on the lowest possible prices for the consumer with free trade encourages self-indulgent materialism in our society. people don't derive pleasure from having and raising a family, they derive pleasure from the next cheap imported gizmo that catches their eye.
switching away from tariffs and excises as the principal source of revenues to a government brought us the income tax--where government thinks they have a right to your money before you do. of course you have no direct control over how they pick your pockets with the income tax. with tariffs and excises citizens do retain some control, because if a tariff or excise tax is too high consumers will purchase less, or substitute something else. this self-regulating mechanism forces government to keep taxes reasonable, otherwise their source of power (your pocketbook) dries up. of course keeping taxes reasonable helps improve the standard of living for the family as well. our present tax system is so oppressive and corrupt that politicians have to pursue exploitative free trade policies just to drive prices as low as possible. people can't afford to pay higher prices for goods due to tariffs and at the same time line the politicians pockets with income taxes so they can exercise ever greater control over our lives.
so abandonment of tariffs (a tax) merely leads to greater adoption of a different tax--income taxes. when the government takes money from our paychecks before we even cash it, we are slaves.
when we abolish the income tax and substitute tariffs and excise taxes, the government doesn't get the money until citizens decide to give it to the government--by purchasing something. if you are going through a tough time, and you want an immediate tax cut, you cut back on your consumption and your tax bill instantly goes down. that is freedom.
our founders knew this, and that's why they decided on a system of tariffs and excise taxes to fund the government instead of an income tax.
woodrow wilson dramatically lowered tariffs, instituted a federal income tax and the federal reserve, seized civil liberties in the name of a war he lied and said he would keep us out of, and pursued an interventionist/internationalist/imperialist policy that new world order, global-governance loving, utopian liberals aspire to even to this day.
i guess that's what america gets for splitting our vote, leaving 42% to an egotistical, radical intellectual professor who liked to think of himself as "progressive"--not unlike the wacked out professors of today who are bored with traditional ideas, so they are left to dream up new social and economic structures. |
