Monique Y. Mudama wrote: > On 2006-04-29, Kent West penned: > >>Mumia W wrote: >> >>>Social Security is a government program. There's nothing wrong >>>about using taxes to support a government program. >> >>So you're in favor of forcing Person A, at the point of a gun, to >>give his hard-earned dollars to Person B? Because at the basics, >>that's what it is. >> > > > But that happens all the time. People who don't drive still pay taxes > for roads.
Do you use public transortation (buses)? Those require the use of roads. Ever been taken to the hospital in an ambulance? Want the police to patrol your neighborhood? Want the utility company to be able to service your neighborhood if the power goes out? Want the corner market to be able to get deliveries of products? How about the local bicycle shop? Want sidewalks in your local downtown area? The main exception would be if you live in the middle of nowhere in a very rural area and you produce your own electricity and have no tdirect contact with the outside world. The point is, that while you may not directly use the roads, they are integral to your life. > People who don't have children pay taxes for schools. I have a major problem with this one. Personally, I believe that we should abolish all public education, except for a very small (i.e., less than a few hundred nationwide) number of schools for orphans, or others who for some reason do not have a parent or guardian that can fund their education. Of course my thinking on this is because free education in public schools is the 10th point cited by Marx as necessary for a Communist society: http://www.taxguru.org/politics/Commies.htm You can verify it for your self by searching for it in ProjectGutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/61/61.txt > People who have no interest in nature pay taxes to preserve national > parks. > This one is a little more touchy. As a Christian, I believe that God has made us stewards over what he has given us: Gensis 1:26-28 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Now, is taxation the way to achieve that? I don't know. However, I do know that it is the responsibility of all mankind to preserve the Earth as best we can. > I agree that social security is all sorts of screwed up, but not > because it involves collecting money and spending it in ways that > might not directly benefit the person paying. Not unless you're > against taxes of all forms, which is possibly an entirely different > argument. > It would be one thing to say if what *you* paid into SS, *you* got back out. However, the way it works now, what *you* pay into SS, goes to the current generation of beneficiaries. Your benefit will be paid for by the next generation. That is not right. In particular, because our population is aging and this is not sustainable. Besides, to me it is just vote buying. Have you heard the saying, "The government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul." > (Just looked at my paycheck; wow, social security is about 1.5x what > I'm withholding for state income tax. A little less than 1/3 of > federal. It's definitely a large chunk of money, and I have zero > expectation of seeing a SS payout when I retire. I don't even want > it. I want to kill off this whole screwed up social security system, > and if that means I pay SS for my parents, then don't get any when I > retire, I'm honestly okay with that. I don't want to see my nieces > and nephew burdened with paying this stuff.) > Luck you. My SS is about 1.5x my *federal* withholding. I am in total agreement with you. If the government said they wanted to kill SS, but I would never get anything back out that I paid into it, I would be completely OK with that. -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sanchez http://familiasanchez.net/~roberto
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