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Thread: Government is Good

  1. #1

    Government is Good

    Poking around the bowels of the internet, I came across this website. WTH??? Sadly, I don't think it's satire.


    Taxes are Good

    Most conservative criticisms about the ill-effects of taxes are exaggerated or untrue. Taxes are in fact good – they are dues we pay to enjoy the numerous vital benefits that government provides for our society.

    Are taxes bad? If you've been listening to conservatives for the last several decades, you would certainly think so. Virtually every Republican candidate for office in recent memory has run on an anti-tax platform – arguing that Americans are overtaxed, that taxes hurt economic growth, etc. And it is this hatred of taxes that helped propel the passage of hundreds of billions of dollars of tax cuts during the administration of George W. Bush.

    This anti-tax campaign strikes a real emotional chord in some Americans and it has been one of the most effective rallying cries of anti-government conservatives. It taps into a taxophobia that is deeply ingrained in American political culture and that manifests itself in the activities of over 800 local and state anti-tax groups. These tax-haters have also been playing a large part in organizing the grassroots Tea Party movement.
    But conservatives are dead wrong about taxes. Taxes are not bad.

    Taxes are good.

    The argument for taxes is a very straightforward one: if government is on balance a very positive force in society, then taxes are good. If what we have seen in other articles on this website is true – that government programs help us all in myriad ways every day, that most government programs are working effectively to solve our social problems, and that government is the only way to promote important values like justice and economic security – then the taxes needed to support these government activities should be seen as a positive good. To put it another way, you can’t support the things the government does – like caring for the elderly, establishing justice, providing public education, fighting terrorism, and protecting the environment – and still maintain that the taxes that support those things are bad. Taxes are the lifeblood of government and so if government is basically good, then so are taxes.

    So instead of seeing paying taxes as analogous to being mugged by the government, we ought to think of these payments more like the tithing that many people do in their churches and synagogues. Most people see these regular donations as a charitable contribution to the good works being done by these religious organizations – and they certainly don’t resent these contributions. But if the government is also an institution dedicated in large part to doing good works – to promoting the public interest – then we should not resent our taxes contributing to those governmental activities. In fact, we should feel good about all the good our tax dollars are doing – just as we feel good about all the good our religious donations do. Of course it could be argued that there is a big difference here – that giving money to churches is voluntary and we are required to pay taxes. But in practice, many religious organizations require members who can afford it to contribute regularly – payments that are really more like mandatory dues than purely voluntary donations. In any case, the point is that contributing toward an organization that is promoting the public good should not be seen as a bad thing.


    ...

    http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=17&p=1



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  3. #2
    War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, taxes and government are good

    Gulag Chief:
    "Article 58-1a, twenty five years... What did you get it for?"
    Gulag Prisoner: "For nothing at all."
    Gulag Chief: "You're lying... The sentence for nothing at all is 10 years"



  4. #3
    Japan's prime sinister Abe and his notorious Abenomics, just rescinded a schedule tax increase because the country has entered into yet another recession and the tax increase would send it into a depression. Printing paper with monetary value on it never works, it only prolongs government dictatorships and elitist thievery.

    Probably another site run by the Army 37F cyber ops or CIA contracted propaganda units.
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    June 1826



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  5. #4
    Very Orwellian.
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by donnay View Post
    Very Orwellian.
    The whole website's crazy as hell.

  7. #6
    they always kinda hit the point of the counter argument to what they support and almost admit its a real reason to not be a damn liberal, but then they always gloss over it like "oh well, " and move on to their crap again.

    in this article i was thinking that the reason people dont mind giving to a church is because its voluntary, and they actually hit that point, but then turned to the glossy mode and said.... ""Of course it could be argued that there is a big difference here – that giving money to churches is voluntary and we are required to pay taxes. But in practice, many religious organizations require members who can afford it to contribute regularly – payments that are really more like mandatory dues than purely voluntary donations. <b>In any case, the point is that contributing toward an organization that is promoting the public good should not be seen as a bad thing.</b>""

    well my bold text wont work, but do you see my point? i had a lib friend telling me how wrong i was for being against the fed. i had him tell me why he liked the fed. then i told him why i was against it. he agreed with all i said but then his response at the end was "well if what you say is true, if we do audit them, itll do more harm than good, so i say just accept it for what it is and let it be."
    Last edited by satchelmcqueen; 11-20-2014 at 10:28 PM.

  8. #7
    A web project of Douglas J. Amy, Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College
    This guy's a Professor of Politics, smh.

  9. #8



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    Poking around the bowels of the internet, I came across this website. WTH??? Sadly, I don't think it's satire.
    Welcome to the club!

    http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...blood-pressure
    http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...rnment-is-good
    http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...rnment-is-good
    The Bastiat Collection · FREE PDF · FREE EPUB · PAPER
    Frιdιric Bastiat (1801-1850)

    • "When law and morality are in contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of losing his respect for the law."
      -- The Law (p. 54)
    • "Government is that great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
      -- Government (p. 99)
    • "[W]ar is always begun in the interest of the few, and at the expense of the many."
      -- Economic Sophisms - Second Series (p. 312)
    • "There are two principles that can never be reconciled - Liberty and Constraint."
      -- Harmonies of Political Economy - Book One (p. 447)

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  12. #10

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    The whole website's crazy as hell.
    It appears so. I don't think it is satire at all. There are people who REALLY believe this BS.

    I got into an argument the other night, with none other than a CPA about taxes and how much the citizens are being hosed left and right. I said property taxes need to go away and all the other unconstitutional taxes that the citizens pay. She said; "It's simple, if you don't like paying taxes just stop." Then she went on to say, you would be the first person to bitch about pot holes in the road. Then I realized I am arguing with a person who makes a living preparing peoples taxes. *SIGH*

    She was totally clueless of the history of this country and the Constitution.

    This sign she would hold proudly...

    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner

  14. #12
    Why do you hate roads, donnay?

    Our CPA is awesome. He has all these old tax forms hanging in his office. It's quite interesting to see how much smaller they used to be. He interns homeschool kids and my son has a job lined up with him next year.

    Quote Originally Posted by donnay View Post
    It appears so. I don't think it is satire at all. There are people who REALLY believe this BS.

    I got into an argument the other night, with none other than a CPA about taxes and how much the citizens are being hosed left and right. I said property taxes need to go away and all the other unconstitutional taxes that the citizens pay. She said; "It's simple, if you don't like paying taxes just stop." Then she went on to say, you would be the first person to bitch about pot holes in the road. Then I realized I am arguing with a person who makes a living preparing peoples taxes. *SIGH*

    She was totally clueless of the history of this country and the Constitution.

    This sign she would hold proudly...

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    A web project of Douglas J. Amy, Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College
    This guy's a Professor of Politics, smh.
    How prestigious!
    “The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” --George Orwell

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  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    Poking around the bowels of the internet...
    See what can happen?
    You need to stop that habit.
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  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Danke View Post
    See what can happen?
    You need to stop that habit.
    I'm surprised we haven't run into each other.

  18. #16
    This anti-tax campaign strikes a real emotional chord in some Americans and it has been one of the most effective rallying cries of anti-government conservatives. It taps into a taxophobia that is deeply ingrained in American political culture and that manifests itself in the activities of over 800 local and state anti-tax groups. These tax-haters have also been playing a large part in organizing the grassroots Tea Party movement.
    But conservatives are dead wrong about taxes. Taxes are not bad.
    For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

    All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.
    -Albert Camus



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  20. #17

  21. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by brushfire View Post
    War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, taxes and government are good
    TL;DR summed up ^
    Quote Originally Posted by Justin Amash (R) MI-3rd
    "Young people want a Republican Party that believes in limited government and economic freedom and individual liberty, but they want a party that also acts on it.”

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    And then you win= Rand Paul, November 8th, 2016

  22. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    Poking around the bowels of the internet, I came across this website. WTH??? Sadly, I don't think it's satire.
    ask them if "taxes" meet the definition of theft.

    watch them squirm and gauge the response.
    priceless.
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein

    "for I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. - Thomas Jefferson.



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