From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed May 15 2002 - 13:50:46 MDT
"J.W. Harris" wrote:
>
> The libertarian political POV is extremely attractive to me.
>
> BUT, for the second time (*) in my life, I have accepted government
> welfare.snip
>
> (It even looks like I'll be able to test out of a whole year of a two
> year degree in network admin, maybe more. Many of the required
> courses are really basic computing or sciences, and I've already done
> college-intro English. Unfortunately neither the Pell Grant nor the
> GI Bill will pay for such 'credit by exam'. Fortunately, at this tech
> college, they cost an average of only $31 per course.)
>
> And yet, it bothers me that I failed to save up enough money to do
> this on my own, that my education is being paid for (in large part) by
> taxes coerced from others.
Ah, but what have YOU paid in taxes? Is it in excess of what you are now
receiving?
Furthermore, did you vote last election? Are you registered to vote
anywhere? Doing either indicates a willingness to be coerced by the
collective will, in which case, there is no real coersion occuring.
Those who vote/are registered and pay taxes are not, technically, being
coerced, since they asked for it. Similarly, those who vote/are
registered have also voted to offer you this money, so it isn't wrong,
from a libertarian perspective, to accept money which has been freely
offered to you by those who have freely chosen, by registering to vote,
to submit to the collective will.
Libertarianism would prefer that charity be done entirely voluntarily,
and there is plenty of money around for those who wish to only accept
private charity to go back to school.
Pure libertarianism would prefer a world where you can't be taxed,
period. Until such a world exists, it is only to the detriment of
libertarian's self interest to refuse to participate fully in the system
we have now. To paraphrase what the commies said, let them give you the
rope you will hang them with.
>
> (*) 'second time'? Actually, no, now that I think about it. I was
> recently reviewing my tax paperwork. For you USA list members, have
> you noticed the tax credit for having a child? If you earn a low
> amount, the federal government actually gives you a larger 'tax
> refund' than you paid in taxes in the first place. But was I willing
> to refuse this money? Another case of not living up to my ideals.
> One more reason to feel queasy about the IRS and the rest of the
> bureaucracy.
The EITC is certainly redistributionism. Makes me want to get a social
security number for my dog, she certainly consumes as much as a child
and can't even let herself out to relieve herself. Maybe I can get a
government grant to pay for training her as a bird dog? ;)
One strategy for libertarians is to intentionally bankrupt the current
system, forcing its overthrow by fed up taxpayers. If that is a strategy
you are interested in, you ought to take advantage of every opportunity
to get free money from the government whenever possible. This will
increase pressure to raise taxes (or else to axe programs) and thus will
change the government.
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