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A Libertarian's definition of a circle jerk: wealth redistribution via taxation

Every time there is a school referendum I hear seniors complaining that they should not be paying for a public school system they do not use because they are on fixed incomes and cannot afford higher taxes.

Of course, those same seniors are more than willing to accept the fact that millions of the parents of school-age children who cannot afford to pay health insurance premiums are forking out 3% of their salaries (matched by 3% from their employers) to pay for Medicare.

Maybe real reform would start by letting people keep their own money and make their own choices with it.

Oh. No. Can't do that because it's selfish and un-American and it makes far more sense to have the government take $2,500 in school taxes from an 85-year-old and $2,500 in Medicare taxes from a thirty-year-old and pay bureaucrats to swap the money around.

Yeah. Libertarians are so crazy.

Comments

Hube said…
The inherent privatization arguments aside, I've had many an argument with senior citizens about this topic come referendum time. ;-)
G Rex said…
I had a similar recurring argument with my grandmother - she was upset that she paid taxes on her social security benefits, despite the fact that she'd never paid a single dime into it, and was quite wealthy owing to the fact that my grandfather had owned a publishing company that still paid dividends to her decades after his death.

"Gramma, do you realize that your Social Security benefits come straight out of my paycheck?" "Oh no, dearie, that can't be right, Mr. Roosevelt said..."

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