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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: neolib who wrote (31408)11/10/2006 3:10:38 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 541946
 
I don't view "more individual freedom" as always beneficial. It would be perhaps if accompanied by "more individual responsibility".

As a general concept I view it as very beneficial, but specific implementations might not be. I'm not claiming that any change whatsoever that increases human freedom to any degree is always a good thing.

The problem with the "more individual responsibility" counter-argument is that bureaucrats and politicians are not perfectly wise and benevolent. If you remove the decision making from the individual because the individual isn't responsible enough, you can easily move it to a government official that isn't responsible.

But then maybe we don't fundamentally disagree considering your comment - "I do of course agree that lowish taxes coupled with a lot of freedom is (AFAIK) the best economic model around. The data is pervasive enough that there is not much wiggle room to argue otherwise."

Of course what is far less stable is from whose pocket the money comes, which accounts for the energetic politics.

"Whose pocket it comes from" has trended to "the rich", at least if your talking about income tax. The poor often don't pay it anymore. The lower middle class pay a small part of the total. The tax income comes from the upper half of the middle class and from the upper class. This has normally been the case but that extent has increased in the past few decades, even as marginal rates have tended to decline.

Of course social security taxes aren't "progressive". I support a simple and flat income tax, but if we were to implement such a flat tax (or perhaps a national sales tax instead) then social security funding would have to be changed.
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