Solution to the Federal Deficit

[Odin]

I Know you Libertarians would say this. I hate libertarians because they act as if the poor can live of charity, GET REAL! Why should you be able to waste you money on a big new TV when a person is starving because he/she is only paid $4 per hour? Quit being so self centered, your lack of compassion and your social darwinism is sickening.

[Japher]

Japher, Sava isn't a psycho, the libertarians are the psychos.

I would explain but you would ignore it as communist ranting, so what is the point when you are too thick-headed?

Thank you for noticing and not spewing out your worthless bullsheit...

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Odin
I Know you Libertarians would say this. I hate libertarians because they act as if the poor can live of charity, GET REAL! Why should you be able to waste you money on a big new TV when a person is starving because he/she is only paid $4 per hour? Quit being so self centered, your lack of compassion and your social darwinism is sickening.

Why shouldn't I? I earned that money. Why should it be REQUIRED that I give it away? In fact, in this system, why should I work? If I don't work, I'll have a greater need, so I'll get things from those who do work... you see?

[Verto]

Why is it my DUTY to work for the good of society? Someone pays me (will pay, whatever ) because I provide them a service: my labor. Why is the payment I recieve in return for my labor not mine to use as I wish? When I am BOUND to work for the good of "society", it is slavery. I do not own the fruits of my labor. There is no freedom, because anything that is mine is no longer mine - it is the property of others. "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need". So I am REQUIRED to give something to someone else simply because they have greater need of it?

Because I work hard and manage to attain a certain level of financial success, I am obliged to take care of the rest of society?

Why should you be able to waste you money on a big new TV when a person is starving because he/she is only paid $4 per hour? Quit being so self centered, your lack of compassion and your social darwinism is sickening.

Who are you to tell me what to do with my money? I will admit it is self centered, but you have no right to tell me what to do with my money.

Rich people waste a lot of thier extra money on useless goods like $100,000 luxury cars and whatever instead of using it for the good of society.

And that 100,000 dollars goes to pay for the people who assembled that car. How is this not for the good of society? I am paid x number of dollars for the work I perform. When I use my money to purchase goods, I am paying somebody else for the work they perform.

[Kuciwalker]

Oh, and regarding the self-centered thing, maybe I agree! However, is it now illegal to be self-centered? Maybe it should be illegal to be rude, too! Or perhaps illegal to hold a grudge?

All of those things may be bad qualities, but BAD QUALITIES AREN'T ILLEGAL! Do you want everyone to conform and be exactly so?

[David Floyd]

Odin,

Rich people waste a lot of thier extra money on useless goods like $100,000 luxury cars and whatever instead of using it for the good of society.

Exactly right. their extra money. You hit on the operative phrase, on the first try even

I Know you Libertarians would say this. I hate libertarians because they act as if the poor can live of charity, GET REAL!

I don't actually care whether or not the poor can live off of charity. Maybe some can, and maybe some can't. Maybe some have no family, no friends, and can't find a church. I'll feel bad for them, too. But does this make a bit of difference to me when I consider welfare? Absolutely not. My money is MY MONEY, and I should be able to do with it as I please.

Don't like it? You go earn your own money, then.

[Kuciwalker]

Why does someone deserve something just because they need it? How does that work?!

[Verto]

I wonder how Benjamin Franklin was able to survive without Social Security to take care of him...

[Japher]

Rich people waste a lot of thier extra money on useless goods like $100,000 luxury cars and whatever instead of using it for the good of society.

That's why there is a "Luxury Tax"

In AMERICA ppl should be able to obtain and gain whatever they want...period

[DanS]

I can accept it being a moral responsibility to help the community, but not it being a REQUIREMENT. That is just as bad as any religious fanatic - enforcing your strict moral code as law.

In the US, it's a very practical thing, having nothing to do with the ethics of forcing people to pay for things against their wishes. Because of the Great Depression, there's a thought that we have to moderate the variability in the growth of our economy by having the government be a larger proportion of total economic activity.

Since that time, the general rules of the economic game haven't changed. Any changes in the equation have been around the edges.

[Kuciwalker]

That is a completely different ballgame. If you can show me that by doing this I will profit in the long run, then sure.

[David Floyd]

That is a completely different ballgame. If you can show me that by doing this I will profit in the long run, then sure.

If you can show me that I will profit in the long run, I will consider volunteering to let you use my money. However, I will not consent to you taking my money without permission, just because you promise me I'll get more in the future.

[DanS]

Over the long run we might be better off in as free of system as possible, but in the long run we're also all dead. We haven't had any depressions since our current system was put in place. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, they happened frequently.

We also haven't had as many big technological advances instituted during our time, even though I'm sure we're spending much more on R&D. I am amazed at what America did in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[Japher]

DanS: I guess the computer industry and Internet exploding did nothing....

The whole welfare issue is a good example of why such things should be privatised... IMO, it is here that Libertarianist views could help..

[DanS]

DanS: I guess the computer industry and Internet exploding did nothing....

Compare to AC eletricity, the light bulb, flight, the automobile, skyscrapers, the telephone, phonograph, radio, etc. They did all of these things with a small fraction of our current population.