"Ed Huntress" wrote:


"Wes" wrote in message
...
Ignoramus28671 wrote:

I'm sorry, but it does seem to me that you are the one who seems
to feel that I should have a claim to your money, because I am poor
and you are not. And that your children don't need it, being the
offspring of a rich corporatist.

I see nothing really wrong with sharing a part of money with the
society.


You did, you were taxed all along the way. The death tax is nothing more
than the tyranny
of the majority and a bit of penis envy. Something that plays well with
people that
believe their position in life is because some fat cat held them down.


People held down by fat cats? You mean, people like Warren Buffet, Robert
Rubin (former Citigroup Chairman), Julian Robertson (hedge fund
billionaire), and Abigail Disney (Walt's grand-neice)? They've all said that
it's not right to have their wealth passed on to heirs -- the children of
wealthy people have done little to deserve it, beyond a modest level of
support until they're self-sufficient.

Well then, those people should give away their wealth on their own if this is what they
believe. Some set up foundations, the most successful was the John M. Olin foundation.
John Olin feared his foundation might drift away from his values so it had a mandate to
spend down the assets in one generation.



It isn't "penis envy." It's a case of the right in America casting off all
sense of social responsibility. The anti-tax mantra has been picked up by
mainstream conservatives, as well. Despite the fact that our overall taxes
are the lowest they've been since 1954 (the strongly
libertarian/conservative Tax Foundation agrees) and are the lowest, overall,
of any developed country in the world, they continue to scream that the
problem is taxes that are too high. Compared to what?

This self-justifying, self-centered hyper individualism actually is a fairly
recent phenomenon, and it's not doing the country any favors. It's not a
part of traditional conservative thought. Even Adam Smith, every
conservative's favorite economist, said:


So the rich left has been sending in extra on their tax returns every year? What is the
effective tax rate the non self centered left is paying? One can send the government
extra money, just send it to the treasury and they will accept it.


"The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the
government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective
abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively
enjoy under the protection of the state. The expence of government to the
individuals of a great nation is like the expence of management to the joint
tenants of a great estate, who are all obliged to contribute in proportion
to their respective interests in the estate."

Proportion not progressive tax rate.

That's been the predominant philosophy throughout Western history. The
current right-wing thinking about taxes in general is the anomaly, and it's
an ideology carried to its ridiculous extreme in its opposition to estate
taxes -- which have been with us since Roman times.

Stealing the pennies off a dead mans eyes. Some have no shame.


You can argue with it, but you aren't arguing with Iggy or me when you do.
You're arguing with some of the best conservative thinkers in history. Even
the father of modern conservatism, Edmund Burke, recognized that the real
problem with taxes is that nobody likes them. g

No chit.



You of all people should know Communism didn't work and Commie lite isn't
going to work
either.

Wes

When the government takes your house and starts paying you a set amount from
a formula set in Washington, you can talk about communism in the US with a
straight face. In the meantime, it's as silly as comparing government
officials with Hitler.

Why is it Hitler gets brought in the conversation so often? But since you brought it up,
I'll play along. I'm sure Obama would like to have his own battalion of Brown shirts.
What was that idea of his, "Civilian National Security Force"?


--
In her book "Atlas Shrugged", first published in 1957, Ayn Rand warned us
about the society we find
ourselves in. We were warned.

We were warned about the consequences of taking to heart wacky hypotheticals
cooked up as bad fiction by lousy writers. g

Orwell and Rand showed us the road ahead. We are well on our way.

Wes