This has to be one of the more bizarre posts I've read, even for Democratic Underground, ending this way:
You know, I do get up every day and work. Part of it is because I genuinely need to do so because I like what I do, but the other part is very real: we have a family of six to support. We made them, yep, so it is our responsibility to take care of them.
And while I do believe in individual obligations to my commnity, the idea that I should pay taxes in order to support this A-hole in working on his driftwood statues and playing keyboards is simply . . . odious.
For almost two decades, roughly two-thirds of the American public have supported what we’d call a moderate European welfare state—putting the average U.S. citizen significantly to the left of the Democratic party...
But hey, our ruling class would shit a brick if any of that wealth redistribution stuff happened over here. Which is why “this is a center-right nation” has been a favorite Fox News talking point for over ten years...But libertarianism? Our ruling class is totally fine with that. Smoke your reefer and sodomize whomever you please, just keep your mouth shut and hand over your Social Security account.
Here’s the real reason libertarians hate the idea. The welfare state is a check against servility towards the rich. A strong welfare state would give us the power to say Fuck You to our bosses—this is the power to say “I’m gonna work odd jobs for twenty hours a week while I work on my driftwood sculptures and play keyboards in my chillwave band. And I’ll still be able to go to the doctor and make rent.”
Sounds like freedom to me.
You know, I do get up every day and work. Part of it is because I genuinely need to do so because I like what I do, but the other part is very real: we have a family of six to support. We made them, yep, so it is our responsibility to take care of them.
And while I do believe in individual obligations to my commnity, the idea that I should pay taxes in order to support this A-hole in working on his driftwood statues and playing keyboards is simply . . . odious.
Comments
2.10 Retirement and Income Security
"Retirement planning is the responsibility of the individual, not the government. Libertarians would phase out the current government-sponsored Social Security system ..."
http://www.lp.org/platform
You can't very well claim the phrase you left out "...and transition to a private voluntary system." was too long, or not relevant. I guess it just didn't support you argument.
Further, if you look at the details of the various plans that have been proposed for the phase-out/transition, almost all of them involve every person who has paid the Social Security Tax getting back every dollar they have paid, with interest, and most of them allow for currently retired people and those within a few years of retirement to choose between a buyout, or continuing to receive their current SS benefit payments for the rest of their lives.
Oh, you mean we should trust our retirements to the LIEBOR riggers, liar loaners, bubble blowers and robo-signers in "the private voluntary system"; that was so recently bailed-out by the U.S. taxpayer?
No thanks. I have more faith in government drones than in white collar criminals.
I, on the other hand, would gladly renounce all claim to the tens of thousands of dollars I've already been forced to flush down the toilet of Socialist Security in return for freedom from any further Socialist Security taxation or "benefits" for the rest of my life.
Where do I get the opt-out form?
Those who disdain government programs like SS and Medicare are happy to avail themselves of them once reality punctures their libertarian illusions.
The libertarian saint, Ayn Rand, being a prime example.
"Doctors cost a lot more money than books earn and she could be totally wiped out" without the aid of these two government programs. Ayn took the bail out even though Ayn "despised government interference and felt that people should and could live independently... She didn't feel that an individual should take help."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-ford/ayn-rand-and-the-vip-dipe_b_792184.html