Text 27269, 88 rader
Skriven 2009-02-04 17:28:56 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 27227 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Maybe, baby...
======================
Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Robert Bashe on Wednesday February 04 2009 at
10:09:

WD>>> The list is looooong ... you're only upset by government money
WD>>> entering the medical branch? Please wake-up!

RB>> You know that I've always been convinced that most people could live
RB>> like kings if ALL taxes were eliminated.

MV> I think that is utter nonsense.

I figured you would. Such ideas are absolute anathema to big-government, "where
is the sugar titty?" social(ist) democrats (although the "democracy is more
imagined than fact) throughout Europe. And they have the biggest say here.

MV> Governments need money to do things...

... that more often than not benefit themselves and their friends more than the
populations they rule over.

MV> ...and the only way are taxes.

The Mafia calls such things "protection money" and the results are much the
same. If you pay, nobody will bother you. If you don't, the Mafia will bomb
your car whereas the government will take it away from you.

MV> Without taxes, there would be no government.

Certainly no government made up of ambitious, well-paid professional
politicians who regard the job as a part-time employment and take well-paid
sideline jobs (as members of the governing board of companies and
lobbyists/lawyers) to take up their slack time. Think that's a joke? I can give
you any number of examples in the German parliament, some of them so egregious
that even their fellow representatives won't cover such gold digging.

On the other hand, governments are alwas asking citizens to provide _their_
services for various social and other purposes, but FREE. How about turning
that around and making parliamentary representatives work for free?

MV> And without government there would only be the law of the jungle. And
MV> with only the law of the jungle, there would only /be/ the jungle.

You assume so much idealism, and ignore the fact that there is plenty "law of
the jungle" in places where people pay high taxes to their governments. Try
some of the former USSR countries, the African countries and a number of those
in the Orient.

MV> Without government, there would be no roads, no railroards, no
MV> airfields.

Of course there would be, but only in places where they are liable to be
profitable. Governments only step in, or should step in, where a service is
socially necessary but unprofitable. Unfortunately, that often doesn't happen.

MV> We would still be living in the middle ages.

Hardly. Taxes were high and almost as arbitrary as nowadays in the middle ages.
And by the way, roads were built and maintained by a yearly labor "tax" (all
citizens were expected to devote a certain number of weeks each year, free, but
with food and shelter) - it was only later that the people were able to avoid
such duties by paying money.

RB>> You and I could easily pay for our own health care (you for your
RB>> entire family) if government taxes wouldn't rob us of the means of
RB>> doing so. Same applies to living expenses.

MV> Without government, there would *be* no health care.

Of course there would, but there would also be insurance companies to help
people get over temporary financial problems due to illness. What you actually
mean is that no government would _run_ a health care system, which based on
what I see of the German one could only be a benefit to most of the population.

MV> You would not be able to pay for your own health care for the simple
MV> reason that you would long be dead.

Is that wishful thinking?

But no worry, just because I have a certain opinion and can justify it doesn't
mean it will be adopted generally tomorrow. In fact, as long as the governments
can so conveniently extract more that 50% of everyone's income (that's not only
income tax) without a bloody revolution taking place, why should any government
complain? Only those on the losing side find that unjust.

Cheers, Bob

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