Sunday, September 30, 2007
The Workers' Paradise- Coming to a U.S.A. Near You!
You go to work, and work hard, for 40, 60, 80 hours a week. If you're a deployed service member, your work week may be 160 hours.
You receive your paycheck. Unless you're self-employed, certain sums have been removed from your income- for income tax, State tax, local taxes, Social Security, Medicare. The SS/Medicare taxes are also paid by your employer, and this sum is passed on in the cost of goods and services- goods and services of which you may also be a consumer.
When you shop at the store, pump gas, light a smoke, pay your electricity bill, eat at McD's, or get a brake job, you pay additional money in the form of sales, excise, or use taxes. If you use telecom in any way, as you must to read this, you are also paying fees for other people to have telecom access.
Sit down and determine, if you can, exactly how much of your hard-earned income you never see. I assure you it is an appreciable percentage.
All of this taxation goes to provide a number of goods and services for society as a whole- roads, drinking water, armies, overpaid Congresscritters, bad art, bridges, spurious academic studies, hand grenades for West Bank tangoes. Some of these uses of your hard-earned dollars make sense, others are an inspiration for a tea party.
So Shrillary and B. Hussein Obama want universal health care. John Edwards wants you to see the doctor regularly, whether you need to or not. He and his friends have spoken about penalties for those with certain health problems, self-induced or not. Shrillary wants to also hand out a five grand bond to all new babies, whether children of citizens or not. This, my friends is called socialism. This has been part of our society since the FDR administration, and has spawned a culture of entitlement; at odds with the Founder's vision of America.
OK, you still want that "free" healthcare, education, food, housing, Nintendos for all Americans. TANSTAAFL. Someone has to pay for and provide these goods and services. Those poor unfortunates are called slaves.
Everywhere socialism has been tried in the past century, it has resulted in war, failure, totalitarian government, enslavement on a massive scale, and the deaths of millions.
America, on the other hand, is a land of opportunity (yes, we started with slavery; then fought a bloody war that rid us of it). You can be whatever or whomever you have the drive to become, with few strictures. You also have the freedom to fail. There is no point in the Founding Documents where it is suggested that your neighbors must provide for you. If you are a failure, or suffer misfortune, your neighbors may freely elect to assist you. They may also direct you to a Dumpster. That is their choice, and yours. To tax someone at gunpoint, however, (and it is at gunpoint- try telling the IRS that you flat-out refuse to kick in any further) and tell them they must provide food, shelter, health care, and education to all about them; that is armed robbery, or slavery. Take your pick.
I have written about ongoing Civil War in this country here , and here .
Universal health care is another step on the way to creating an un-bordered "Workers Paradise" on the ashes of the United States. Every election is important- government is what happens to you while you're asleep.
A closing anecdote:
During the 2004 Republican Party convention, I watched President Bush speak while I was in the company of my then-lady-friend's very bright and very mouthy teenage daughter. This girl launched into a tirade about Pres. Bush and how awful he is, cutting funds to education, health, and welfare. She maintained that everyone is entitled to a college education and free health care. I finally stopped her, and asked if she had $150. She replied that she might have that in checking, why? I explained that I hadn't had a doctor's exam in over year, and that would be the approximate cost with labwork. She said that I worked for a living, I could pay for myself (which is what I do these days. No money, no healthcare. I'm at the very bottom of the VA's heap). I told her that, believing in universal healthcare, she should be happy to contribute for my care. She never did get it.
You receive your paycheck. Unless you're self-employed, certain sums have been removed from your income- for income tax, State tax, local taxes, Social Security, Medicare. The SS/Medicare taxes are also paid by your employer, and this sum is passed on in the cost of goods and services- goods and services of which you may also be a consumer.
When you shop at the store, pump gas, light a smoke, pay your electricity bill, eat at McD's, or get a brake job, you pay additional money in the form of sales, excise, or use taxes. If you use telecom in any way, as you must to read this, you are also paying fees for other people to have telecom access.
Sit down and determine, if you can, exactly how much of your hard-earned income you never see. I assure you it is an appreciable percentage.
All of this taxation goes to provide a number of goods and services for society as a whole- roads, drinking water, armies, overpaid Congresscritters, bad art, bridges, spurious academic studies, hand grenades for West Bank tangoes. Some of these uses of your hard-earned dollars make sense, others are an inspiration for a tea party.
So Shrillary and B. Hussein Obama want universal health care. John Edwards wants you to see the doctor regularly, whether you need to or not. He and his friends have spoken about penalties for those with certain health problems, self-induced or not. Shrillary wants to also hand out a five grand bond to all new babies, whether children of citizens or not. This, my friends is called socialism. This has been part of our society since the FDR administration, and has spawned a culture of entitlement; at odds with the Founder's vision of America.
OK, you still want that "free" healthcare, education, food, housing, Nintendos for all Americans. TANSTAAFL. Someone has to pay for and provide these goods and services. Those poor unfortunates are called slaves.
Everywhere socialism has been tried in the past century, it has resulted in war, failure, totalitarian government, enslavement on a massive scale, and the deaths of millions.
America, on the other hand, is a land of opportunity (yes, we started with slavery; then fought a bloody war that rid us of it). You can be whatever or whomever you have the drive to become, with few strictures. You also have the freedom to fail. There is no point in the Founding Documents where it is suggested that your neighbors must provide for you. If you are a failure, or suffer misfortune, your neighbors may freely elect to assist you. They may also direct you to a Dumpster. That is their choice, and yours. To tax someone at gunpoint, however, (and it is at gunpoint- try telling the IRS that you flat-out refuse to kick in any further) and tell them they must provide food, shelter, health care, and education to all about them; that is armed robbery, or slavery. Take your pick.
I have written about ongoing Civil War in this country here , and here .
Universal health care is another step on the way to creating an un-bordered "Workers Paradise" on the ashes of the United States. Every election is important- government is what happens to you while you're asleep.
A closing anecdote:
During the 2004 Republican Party convention, I watched President Bush speak while I was in the company of my then-lady-friend's very bright and very mouthy teenage daughter. This girl launched into a tirade about Pres. Bush and how awful he is, cutting funds to education, health, and welfare. She maintained that everyone is entitled to a college education and free health care. I finally stopped her, and asked if she had $150. She replied that she might have that in checking, why? I explained that I hadn't had a doctor's exam in over year, and that would be the approximate cost with labwork. She said that I worked for a living, I could pay for myself (which is what I do these days. No money, no healthcare. I'm at the very bottom of the VA's heap). I told her that, believing in universal healthcare, she should be happy to contribute for my care. She never did get it.
