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self-evident
10-27-2008, 09:30 AM
Didn't know if this went in Civil Liberties, Economics, or General, but this article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sally-kohn/why-i-love-taxes-----and_b_137288.html) from the Huffington Post is fascinating. It almost makes you wonder if it's really a Libertarian writing a big satire of all the things wrong with this mindset.

jonhowe
10-27-2008, 09:41 AM
" Want to re-regulate Wall Street? Want to extend unemployment benefits and help homeowners renegotiate their mortgages? Want to make college more affordable? Want to lower gas prices and have alternative energy? Every single one of these goals goes against the instincts and incentives of the free market. For the problems we as a nation is now facing, government is the solution. "

I think I threw up a little bit.

angelatc
10-27-2008, 09:43 AM
I can't read that site.

Truth Warrior
10-27-2008, 09:49 AM
"Why I Love Taxes - And Why Most Americans Do, Too"

Aside from the most obvious answer of, "Most Americans are IDIOTS!", I really haven't got another clue. :D

klamath
10-27-2008, 10:00 AM
Clinton ran on a tax cut platform but when he got in he said it was worse than he thought so he couldn't do it. I expect Obama will do the same thing when in.

Truth Warrior
10-27-2008, 10:06 AM
Clinton ran on a tax cut platform but when he got in he said it was worse than he thought so he couldn't do it. I expect Obama will do the same thing when in. The pols tend to really enjoy replaying their previously successful BOGUS campaign pandering LIES. :p :rolleyes:

Why? Because they usually work so well. ;)

FunkBuddha
10-27-2008, 10:13 AM
Someone should post reason #4 why people like paying taxes.

4. Blowing up schoolchildren.

Because most Americans like dropping bombs on innocent civilians as is evidenced by their continuous devotion to funding the "War on Terror" through taxation and inflation.

beerista
10-27-2008, 11:06 AM
"Want to re-regulate Wall Street? Want to extend unemployment benefits and help homeowners renegotiate their mortgages? Want to make college more affordable? Want to lower gas prices and have alternative energy? Every single one of these goals goes against the instincts and incentives of the free market. For the problems we as a nation is now facing, government is the solution."

I think I threw up a little bit.

Was it because of her appalling grammar?

Or, perhaps it was due to the "clever" way she deflects any discussion of possible negative consequences of government, never to speak of them again:
The conservative attack on taxes is really an attack on government. They want us to believe that government should be judged by its most aberrant inefficiencies and most extreme mistakes. They want us to ignore all the things we like...
Certainly, if we only count the "things we like" and dismiss everything else as "aberrant inefficiencies" and "extreme mistakes" without allowing that these -- if not the point of an exercise that just happens as a consequence to produce the "things we like" -- might just be inherent in the system, government will seem less evil.

Normally, I wouldn't respond to an article like this (and I haven't responded to it thoroughly -- although probably more thoroughly than it deserves) but this is just the kind of quackery that people will read and accept, possibly due to the influence of the author's lauded public schools. I'm just tired of having this kind of vapid crap quoted at me as though it were a valid argument, rather than obfuscation.

jonhowe
10-27-2008, 11:08 AM
Was it because of her appalling grammar?

Or, perhaps it was due to the "clever" way she deflects any discussion of possible negative consequences of government, never to speak of them again:
The conservative attack on taxes is really an attack on government. They want us to believe that government should be judged by its most aberrant inefficiencies and most extreme mistakes. They want us to ignore all the things we like...
Certainly, if we only count the "things we like" and dismiss everything else as "aberrant inefficiencies" and "extreme mistakes" without allowing that these -- if not the point of an exercise that just happens as a consequence to produce the "things we like" -- might just be inherent in the system, government will seem less evil.

Normally, I wouldn't respond to an article like this (and I haven't responded to it thoroughly -- although probably more thoroughly than it deserves) but this is just the kind of quackery that people will read and accept, possibly due to the influence of the author's lauded public schools. I'm just tired of having this kind of vapid crap quoted at me as though it were a valid argument, rather than obfuscation.

Yea, the brutal double whammy of insane 'logic' and poor writing hit me like a truck.

tmosley
10-27-2008, 11:45 AM
I clicked on that article hoping to read a clever satire.

I'm going to go load some more ammo now.

Paulitician
10-27-2008, 12:09 PM
Eek, our country is turning into a Marxist hell-hole. I better move to Signapore quick...

Truth Warrior
10-27-2008, 12:21 PM
Eek, our country is turning into a Marxist hell-hole. I better move to Signapore quick... TPTB Marxist hell-hole NWO coming soon to a Singapore near you. ;) :D

moostraks
10-27-2008, 12:22 PM
This is rich "a plurality of Americans think the biggest problem facing their local public schools is a lack of funding, and they support more federal money for public schools."

Yeah because they can't afford the taxes at a local level so they would like the whole country to pitch in. Why don't school levys pass up here in the rust belt north???

THen this "but given how much government has fed and nurtured all of us, we'd only be starving ourselves."

Great! So first we embrace corporatism and form treaties to allow big business to outsource work to foreign countries at a pittance and now many find themselves living off the government for sustenance since they broke the capacity to feed themselves. What a beautiful thought to usher in socialist america...

So now "more Americans said that increasing government spending on things like health care, education and housing would do more to fix the economy than cutting taxes. "

Only because people buy the msm idiotcy that we can't do for ourselves we need bigger government. That free market capitalism brought us to this point? UGh!! someone needs to re-educate her as she clearly went to a government school...

My favorite was that she made sure to inject the race card. I cannot believe that people can actually think in this fashion and live in the United States with the capability to vote and pollute others with this dirge. Sadly, her view is the norm now it seems and we are a dwindling few that hold onto the hope that there will be opportunity and not handouts for everyone.

Truth Warrior
10-27-2008, 12:29 PM
This is rich "a plurality of Americans think the biggest problem facing their local public schools is a lack of funding, and they support more federal money for public schools."

Yeah because they can't afford the taxes at a local level so they would like the whole country to pitch in. Why don't school levys pass up here in the rust belt north???

THen this "but given how much government has fed and nurtured all of us, we'd only be starving ourselves."

Great! So first we embrace corporatism and form treaties to allow big business to outsource work to foreign countries at a pittance and now many find themselves living off the government for sustenance since they broke the capacity to feed themselves. What a beautiful thought to usher in socialist america...

So now "more Americans said that increasing government spending on things like health care, education and housing would do more to fix the economy than cutting taxes. "

Only because people buy the msm idiotcy that we can't do for ourselves we need bigger government. That free market capitalism brought us to this point? UGh!! someone needs to re-educate her as she clearly went to a government school...

My favorite was that she made sure to inject the race card. I cannot believe that people can actually think in this fashion and live in the United States with the capability to vote and pollute others with this dirge. Sadly, her view is the norm now it seems and we are a dwindling few that hold onto the hope that there will be opportunity and not handouts for everyone.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/suprynowicz/suprynowicz92.html (http://www.lewrockwell.com/suprynowicz/suprynowicz92.html)

mediahasyou
10-27-2008, 03:55 PM
"Why I Love Taxes - And Why Most Americans Do, Too"

"Well, I don't mind paying a little bit more." - Barack Obama

Truth Warrior
10-27-2008, 04:04 PM
"Well, I don't mind paying a little bit more." - Barack Obama :eek: Now posts are getting hijacked. :p :rolleyes:

The_Orlonater
10-27-2008, 07:17 PM
I got a better way to test their communistic mentality.

If there was a voluntary government tax, that would fund, say some schools(ala donations, let's assume public education was abolished), infustructure, donating to charities, or maybe some government welfare.

Now the people pay taxes on things like these, but if they were made voluntary. Would they, pay them? I mean you love taxes. I guess it can't be considered theft since they like them.

Does anybody have an account on that stupid website? Someone should copy and paste this there and see how they respond. PM if interested.

Danke
10-27-2008, 08:48 PM
Your post title "Why I Love Taxes - And Why Most Americans Do, Too" reminded me of:

"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"

Andrew Ryan
10-27-2008, 08:51 PM
I clicked on that article hoping to read a clever satire.

I'm going to go load some more ammo now.
I wish I had a gun lol.....:(

AutoDas
10-27-2008, 08:52 PM
This "HuffingtonPost" site is even funnier than The Onion!

Let me guess why the majority of Americans like taxes, is it because they don't have to pay them? Let the rich pay the bill.

brandon
10-27-2008, 08:54 PM
I'm living in craz world. I feel more isolated and alone every day.

Here is my favorite gem from the article.


It should go without saying that attacks on taxes always have a racial subtext to them -- that we wouldn't want our (read: white) money to be redistributed toward others (read: black people or, increasingly, Latino immigrants).

god help us all.

D.H.
10-28-2008, 12:21 AM
Well as they say, the only sure thing in life is death and taxes....and it is nothing new. Neither are progressive taxes. Adam Smith is considered the founder of free market capitalism. Here is one quote re taxes from 1776:

In “Wealth of Nations,” Smith wrote: “The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

And this

"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations