The Pope Endorses Tax Choice

[Xerographica]

Turns out that the pope endorsed tax choice 4 years ago...

One possible approach to development aid would be to apply effectively what is known as fiscal subsidiarity, allowing citizens to decide how to allocate a portion of the taxes they pay to the State. Provided it does not degenerate into the promotion of special interests, this can help to stimulate forms of welfare solidarity from below, with obvious benefits in the area of solidarity for development as well. - Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth

As far as I can tell...it's by far the most notable endorsement of the idea of giving taxpayers more control over how their taxes are spent.

So, are any of you now "sold" on the tax choice concept because the pope endorses it? Do any of you like the tax choice concept even less because the pope endorses it?

Whose endorsement would you give the most weight to? If President Obama supported the tax choice concept would that motivate you to like tax choice on facebook? What about Ron Paul or Paul Krugman? Would any of you be swayed by the endorsements of any actors, musicians or athletes? If so, which ones?

I guess what I'm asking is...when it comes to new political/economic ideas...if you had to pick one person...whose opinion would you trust the most?

Personally, my vote is for Vermin Supreme. I love that guy. Both Vermin Supreme and the pope wear a funny hat.

Should the president wear a funny hat? Speaking of which, let's get crazy with the cheese whiz and consider James M. Buchanan's argument that the state has replaced god (Afraid to be free: Dependency as desideratum)...

But what if Nietzsche is right? What if God is dead? What happens to the person who is forced to recognize that the ordering presence of God is no longer real? What if God cannot be depended on to clean up the mess, even in some last resort sense? Who and/or what can fulfill the surrogate parent role? Who and what is there beyond the individual that can meet the yearning for family-like protectiveness? Who and what will pick us up when and if we fall? Who and what can provide the predictability that God and his agency structures seemed to offer?

...In short, persons are afraid to be free. As subsequent discussion will suggest, socialism, as a coherent ideology, has lost most of its appeal. But in a broader and more comprehensive historical perspective, during the course of two centuries, the state has replaced God as the father-mother of last resort, and persons will demand that this protectorate role be satisfied and amplified.

We transitioned from putting our lives in god's hands to putting our lives in the state's hands...

Something wonderful happened in the United States during the middle third of the twentieth century. After decades of policies that smacked of Social Darwinism, our country created a strong, if incomplete, social-insurance safety net. - Henry J. Aaron, Progressives and the Safety Net

Highly risk-averse people do not start businesses; instead, they tend to go to work for well-established businesses or, in many cases, for the government, particularly in education. That risk-averse population is the natural political home of socialism in the developed world, and particularly in the United States and other English-speaking countries. - Kevin D. Williamson, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism

The state has replaced god, so by endorsing tax choice, the pope is actually endorsing freedom of religion. The question is...of all the really "notable" people, why is the pope the first and only one who endorses freedom of modern religion? How did that happen? It kind of weirds me out. Anybody else think that it's strange?

[Sola_Fide]

Rome endorses all kinds of socialism, statism, and global government.