Cobraboy answer a few questions for me please.
1) Did you go to public schools for your primary education? That's the hated gubmint at work.
Yes. And my family paid stiff property taxes to support that local school system above the per-student cost.
I don't have kids, but paid property taxes to support a school system my non-childern could access.
I AM an advocate of egalitarian vouchers. I don't think gubmint has any bidness in direct edumacation.
Tarheel said:
2) How about hospitals? Ever been to one? They are subsidized by the gubmint
Yes, and I always either had health insurance that was expensive or paid cash. Certainly my health insurance rates paid for much of the uninsured.
I was also in the healthcare business for years. Two division were in the Medicare system (Home Health Care and Hospice, both cost reimbursed, non-profit) and can speak first hand about the extreme inefficiency of gubmint intervention in it, from licensing to Medicare A&B, Hospice and Medicaid reimbursement.
Tarheel said:
2) Did you go to college? A public university that receives gubmint money? Did you get a scholarship? Gubmint loans, etc?
I went to a private university for undergrad (football/baseball scholarship, so I worked hard to earn my education) and a state university for grad, no student loans, a graduate assistant football coach and offseason work at night at UPS. I also paid state sales tax and income tax, both prior to and subsequent to graduation, which pays for state universities.
BTW, I believe there is way too much fluff in state universities, and the current tenure system breeds laziness and intellectual sloth (Mom CB was an upper administrator in a stste university before going to an excellent private university, so my perspective is a little different.) The cost of state higher edumacation could be sharply reduced so more kids could afford to go without massive student loans
Tarheel said:
3) You were a pilot, correct? Do you realize that the FAA and controllers are gubmint employess.
Still am a pilot. You realize, I hope, that fuel taxes on aviation fuels largely pay for the ATC system, right, around $0.22g on Jet-A and $0.20g on avgas? The FAA largely operates on user fees, as it should.
Tarheel said:
I could go on and on but you get my point.
Me too...
Tarheel said:
The benefits of gubmint in the USA are many and it's hard to say you never benefited from them. I understand your hatred of gubmint but it has allowed a well ordered society that you should be grateful for.
Now we may be able to agree that governments grow too large and try to do too much. But to say that modern society could prosper without government is silly and untrue.
I don't "hate" gubmint. I've paid all sorts of taxes my entire life, including the higher income tax brackets, so I've paid MORE than my "fair share." I just think it is too intrusive in the affairs of Free Men, and should answer to Free men, not the other way around.
Nor do I think it is up to gubmint to decide who are the winners and losers, who gets free stuff, who doesn't and who should pay. There just isn't enough cheese to go around indefinitely as we're finding out now.
And never, ever have I once advocated "no gubmint."
To be clear, I am a libertarian and a capitalist. I trust free markets vastly more than I will ever trust gubmint bureaucrats, elected representatives, university professors or social scientists. I've noticed that social programs work only up to a point, even those most needed, and then they create resentment and an attitude of entitlement in recipients. I find it unconstitutional that gays are not allowed to marry (they are entitled to the joys of divorce, too:cheeky
, am unreligious and I am very reluctantly pro-choice. Ayn Rand was a sexy goddess, Dr. Charles Krauthammer has a huge brain and Ronald Reagan was correct when he said that gubmint is the problem, not the solution. How that translates into a "hatred" for gubmint or advocacy for anarchy is beyond me...