So the people emptying the bedpans would get paid and are working by choice. There's no question of anyone having a right to their labor.
The money? Yes, taxes. You pay for roads that you never use. Schools even if you have no kids. Police that you never call. Wars you might object to. It sucks, I agree, as would paying for an obese heroin addict's medical care when you make an effort to be healthy. Valid objection. I don't agree with how a lot of the tax money gets spent, or the way taxes are applied, but I don't disagree with the principle of taxation as a means to provide for the general welfare.
It boils down to whether you're willing to carry someone weaker. Some hopeless fucks are always going to need to be carried. I'm willing to accept that as the cost of providing basic services which differentiate the developed world from the third world. There is an injustice being done to those of us who do the carrying, true, but we have also been carried insofar as we got to go through our lives in some pretty lucky circumstances, all things considered. I don't mind giving some back in exchange for that. I'd rather live in a cooperative society than in the jungle where it's every man for himself. I'm willing to pay for the obese heroine addict's health care while I'm strong on the understanding that someone will fix my arm if I fall off a ladder one day and break it. Plenty of universal service programs work just fine (not perfect but fine) so I don't buy into the pessimistic view of humanity as dooming to failure any program that involves helping people.
What I find hard to reconcile about those who propound the every man for himself view is that they didn't just walk out of the jungle and start telling me about how great shit is in there and how there's no injustice. It's always some suburbanite who has deluded himself into believing that he is the sole reason for any success he has had. Never a word about how the fortunate circumstances into which he was born, put together and paid for by people he never met, made the fruits of his labor possible. You're not a victim of taxation. You've benefited from taxation all your life. Look around you.
Very good points and I agree most of use have benefited from taxation, but the underlaying problem is, like Thin Lizzy said, the feeling of entitlement; being used to get something without really trying. I think that's a huge a problem for any society.
If you're a productive member of society you pay taxes, sometimes a lot of them. Therefore you expect the goverment to use that money to improve people's quality of life trough education, roads, and of course, healthcare programs. But, when you see people trying to skip the "tax paying" part, that is irritating, at least it is for me.
But, let's take away the outraging part, which is subjective, you still have to ask to yourself:
Is this sustanaible in the long run?
Is this just a politician's way to earn voters?
You're gonna find studies, articles, etc saying it is actually doable, but, are thos studies unbiased? Are they reliable?
