"Anonymous" down-column asks, in rage and self-righteousness, if I, JW, thinks
that he, rich taxpayer, should be required to pay for my health insurance.
Yes. Yes I do.
I believe that the
social compact of "we the people" calls on all of us to take care of
all of us. I believe that health care is a right of the people, along with a
quality education and clean water and unpolluted air, and I believe that all of
us have an obligation to pay, and I have been paying all my life the taxes that
help insure all of the above, although I don't have children in school and
don't have a parent in a nursing home and don't have a bottled water business
nor a travel agency that depends on clear skies.
I have never been a
resentful taxpayer, and I've never enjoyed hearing the resentments of others,
especially coming from the very rich who have benefitted rather demonstrably
from the social contract that they so deeply loathe. The very idea that some
poor person might be enjoying life a fraction more because of the taxes they
pay fills them with yellow bile. Their resentment, considering their own
multitude of economic blessings, strikes me as unAmerican and -- I was raised
on the Bible -- profoundly unChristian.
Thank you for the sincere response, JW.
ReplyDeleteOne correction though...I am not rich, I doubt that I am as financially well off as you are.
But, no matter. I appreciate your post.
Wolfie: "let them eat cake"
ReplyDeleteYou confuse your "right" to something with your "right" to take it from someone else. Don't people have a "right" to eat what they kill?
ReplyDeleteDoes a person have a right to what they legally and morally earn?
ReplyDeleteIF so, why do you have a claim to what others earn, or own?
"Social contract" is a construct of thieves. You claim everyone is part of this, voluntarily or not. It is used by those who are envious of others, and what others have. It is not a mutually beneficial exchange, but one of mob rule, might makes right, the wants of the many is greater then the needs of the few.
A majority of wolves outvoting the minority of sheep for dinner.
People work to earn money. They voluntarily exchange their time, a piece of their LIFE, for something of value they can use or exchange for something else of value. Money is just a marker, a medium of exchange for someone's labor, to be used to buy things an individual cannot get on their own. A house, clothes, food,books, etc.
When you force someone give you money for your benefit, without any consent or compensation, you are a thief, not just of their money, but of a piece of their life.
You forcibly take what they earned for your benefit without caring what effect it has on them. Maybe they have children who need medical care. Maybe they have elderly parents they are caring for. You assume that everyone else is better off than yourself. You exhibit the callousness and hate that you claim others have.
You say "I believe that all of us have an obligation to pay", but that is a lie. You do not force everyone to pay for your wants, half the people in this country pay no income tax.
You are just greedy and envious.
Health care is not a right. It is a commodity. If it is a right will you FORCE a doctor to perform a surgery against his will for your benefit? Will you demand that a pharmacist give you medicines if you cannot pay for them? If so, then you are making the doctor and the pharmacist a slave. You own them, You can tell them what to do for your benefit and their detriment.
I have read the postings and comments on this blog for a long time. In recent months the "social contract" seems to be dividing us more and more. The divide is not really about left or right, democrat or republican, haves and have-nots, but between those who want to be left alone and those who want to force others to do their will.
The conflict is whether or not the "social contract" is voluntary or forced.
In my considered opinion, it is a continuation of the very conflict that created this country, the Revolution. The struggle is between those who want to force others and those who want to be free.
This fight has continued thru the Civil war, the suffrage movement, the civil rights movement and in many forms now in Occupy Wallstreet, Black Lives Matter, the AntiFa, the militia movement, the prepper movement, the concealed carry movement.
I'm sure you all will disagree with what I've written. Your call. But this divide is becoming greater, and more violent, (http://fox42kptm.com/news/local/nebraska-democratic-party-official-ousted-after-controversial-audio-recording-surfaces) you just need to realize what you want is not what everyone else wants.
Your wants do not give you rights.
There are those that say that they "wish to be free" or that others do not have a right to "take what they earn" seldom admit that they USE and benefit public infrastructure. The roads and rails, bridges and schools, water treatment and air traffic control. They benefit from the protection given by law enforcement and the national defense.
ReplyDeleteHypocrites in my eye and the very definition of selfish.
Good post, Mr. Wolf! I don't know what makes liberals think requiring someone else to pay for their health care is, somehow, a "right". JW suggests that it is "unChristian" not to do so.
ReplyDeleteBut, would you force non Christians to contribute to "Christian" activities?
One thing that JW confuses is someone's "right" to access health care and someone's "right" to have it provided to them courtesy of the tax payers.
We Americans have a "right" to keep and bare arms. (Guaranteed by our constitution - unlike health care). Do liberals suggest that this "right" requires government to supply those arms free of charge to those who can't afford them?
WolfsHead said, "Social contract is a construct of thieves."
ReplyDeleteWow. Some philosophy there, Wolf. I think I'll pass.
John Sears "Blah, blah , blah"
ReplyDeleteYour social contract is not unlimited or without restrictions.
Other than schools, your list of government infrastructure is precisely a function of a legitimate government and legitimate use of tax money.
Our government was founded to be a minimalist government. You want it to be all encompassing and all powerful, exactly the opposite of how it's supposed to work.
Paying taxes and using what you have paid for as an agreed function of government is not hypocrisy, but the rightful relationship between the people and a government that is supposed to serve them.
You say I am selfish and hypocritical. You think that wanting to keep what I have earned is greedy and selfish, yet you want to take what belongs to others, THAT is greed.
Anon 10:41 "We Americans have a "right" to keep and bare arms. (Guaranteed by our constitution - unlike health care). Do liberals suggest that this "right" requires government to supply those arms free of charge to those who can't afford them?"
Works for me. There are actual government statutes that specify what the government is supposed to supply to you as part of the militia, but politicians would rather cut their throats than see a free people armed by their own tax money.
Wolfie-troll-boy,
ReplyDeleteYou are a taker not a giver. Your comments about the social contract spell that out. You enjoy all the local, state and federal infrastructure yet you begrudge paying for it. You have no argument for John Sears thoughtful and too the point comments in response to your troll-post. When you say "blah, blah, blah" you sound like a 6th grad schoolgirl. Don't be such a snowflake Wolfie-troll-boy when you actually don't have a thoughtful counterpoint. Silence would be the better approach. Just go away. You are not going to change anyone's minds on this site.
Hmmmm.....JohnSears, like JW, wants to take from those who have earned and redistribute to those who have not - but Anonymous 5:59 says that Wolf is the "taker'?
ReplyDeleteWhiners clamor for more freebies to be provided to them by others - and have the temerity to accuse those others of being "selfish" when they resist. Sears, with his hand out, seems to argue that since government provides some services which benefit all - then they must also provide additional services to benefit others.
Nice try.
PS: Wolf - I appreciate your posts. Always nice to see someone without his hand out!
Wolf fails to recognize that he supports interests that are not his own. He would prefer to be governed by oligarchs, uber wealthy, white men that he assumes whose interests align with his own. He aspires to be a Trump or a Koch. Their goals and dreams are his goals and dreams.
ReplyDeleteHe fails to see that he is just a dupe in their plan. As long as the American Oligarchy can continue to animate the illusion that convinces people that are not white, christian, alt-right, are "the other", are a threat to their vision of homogeneity and to be feared, Wolf will continue to be angry and threatened. After all, he and his cohort are not "the other".
Wolf feels free if he has a gun. It seduces him with power and control that he does not own without. Wolf throws around the 2nd amendment as a threat to anyone that disagrees with his/Trump/Koch idea of what democracy and civilization should be. Wolf is a coward and afraid. The Trump/Koch Kool-Aid is a strong intoxicant.
Their slogan should be "Every White Man is an Island". Hardly an ideology that benefits, much less recognizes, society and civilization as a whole. But then again, society and civilization are an inconvenience to the alt-right oligarchical poppy dream.
Let's let the reader's decide on how horrible I really am.
ReplyDeleteYou may live your life as you wish as long as you do not harm others.
What you earn honestly is yours.
No one else has a claim to it.
You are not entitled to others wealth.
Property rights are guarantors of individual freedom.
Transactions by individuals must be voluntary. Something for something.
If you want to give voluntarily to help others then God Bless.
To take your wealth against your will is a crime unless it is by a Constitutional action.
Taxes should be the minimum necessary for a functioning Constitutional government.
More than that is theft.
The only legitimate function of government is to protect your rights and your freedom, by the courts and the military.
The US military is for the defense of the United States and it's citizens, not foreign wars, regime change or nation building.
You have a God given right to defend yourself, to own guns or carry them to defend yourself, your property or others.
You do not have the right to force people to accept your beliefs, or to live by them.
You do not have the right to force others to pay for your wants or needs.
You have the right to resist unlawful force.
Parents are responsible for their children and their education.
Laws should be Mala in se, not Mala prohibita.
Everyone has the same rights under the law.
You have an equality of opportunity, not an equality of outcome.
From the above it would be hard to say that I support an oligarchy, the Kochs or any individual or group that wants to control your life, such as the left, who want to control it all.
You are owner of your life, go live it.
White, alt-right, Koch talking points. Not surprising from a proponent of Rhodesian government.
ReplyDelete