Quote:
Originally Posted by Kipperriffic
Ok, I'm coming from the idea that Govt. ideally should not be a wealth distributing body, but a body that protects property for us. This is the strict libertarian idea.
But I can be a little lenient. I only mentioned Military, Education, Healthcare because those came to my mind first. But there are other things that govt. can do that may not directly affect ME, but keep the general quality of life of a country high. So for example, things like homeless shelters, yes govt can distribute wealth for those. I mean I don't want people dying on street from hunger. And there are other things that you can come up with.
But you have to draw the line somewhere. There are today so many useless social programs and so many other programs govt. gives money to it is ridiculous. Global Warming for example.
I don't wanna take this thread off topic; Taxation is a topic for another thread.
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Those "useless" social programs are other people's recreation, enrichment, empowerment and livelihood.
Reminds me of a quote from All Quiet on the Western Front:
"Comrade, I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony — forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?"