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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: thames_sider who wrote (90332)10/16/2008 2:08:31 PM
From: Lane3  Read Replies (2) of 541772
 
I don't think anyone has made them an entitlement.

Say what? Try taking some government handout away and see if you don't see protest signs claiming you can't do that because people are entitled to it.

Now if you think that taxes on income are too high (or too low), that seems to me a separate argument altogether.

Actually, I can't get too exercised over tax rates.

but not at the point of payment

Nor about whether people get more or less than they paid in. I don't mind the actual distribution, it's the notion of automatic eligibility by reason of citizenship or simply being a human being.

For example, is everyone entitled to own a home? Some people think so. If they can't buy a home on their own, then the taxpayers should subsidize it. I know someone who thinks people have a right to medical care for their pets if they can't afford it since pets are healthy to have and, after all, people are entitled to health care whether they can afford it or not so this is just an extension. There are some who think all those suffering people in Africa have a human right to AIDS medication. That's an entitlement based on simply being a live human being, one that imposes a financial burden on someone else.

A while back we had a civil rights movement where people fought for the right to be served at the local pancake house. At that time, it never occurred to anyone that not only should they have a legal right to not be turned away but a right to free food.

Somehow we have evolved to thinking that people have the right to all sorts of things. The notion of charity has been replaced by the notion of entitlement. I don't find that healthy. That's why I try to draw a line on entitlements. I have no objection to offering a charitable hand. Folks can have the handout. It's acceding to the notion of the right to the handout where I draw the line.

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