Maxprop wrote:
Why should any function of government redistribute wealth? I don't recall
that provision in the Constitution.


Think for half a second.

The gov't takes money away from some people in taxes, or
reduces their wealth thru inflation by printing money.

The gov't then spends money, and obviously some it finds
it's way back into the same pockets but not all of it.

Therefor, wealth has been redistributed.




I am against a Federal sales tax as it would impose yet another Federally
mandated administrative burden on all business and would also supress
aggregate demand.


Do you think the current income tax laws do not impose a federally-mandated
administrative burden on businesses? My guess is that administering a
federal sales tax would be a snap compared with wading through the ponderous
tax codes that exist today.


Do you think that Congress is ever going to willingly
*simplify* the tax code? That would be diminishing it's own
power.

If a Federal sales tax is enacted, it will be cumbersome at
best. And the sales tax is historically shown to have a
downward effect on demand out of proportion to it's numeric
value.



You claimed at one point to be a conservative, what happened to slashing
Federal spending???


That should *always* be on the table. Sadly it almost never is. And when
it is, it's lipservice, not substance.


Yep, that's why Clinton (and Al Gore, and a Republican
Congress) managed it.



Those same police and courts don't protect the poor from rich people
exploiting them, robbing them blind, and such? I wasn't aware our legal
system only worked in one direction.


If you're already rich, why rob poor people?

Talk sense.

And "exploiting" poor people isn't against the law. Shucks,
it's impossible to hire anybody at the minimum wage as it is.



LOL. The wealthy generally get that way by working their butts off. Most
of the poor that I meet don't work at all.


Right.

I guess all the people who work in Wal-Mart (and almost
every other retail establishment) are all comfortably middle
class & above.


The SEC is a double-edged sword for the wealthy.

Yep, makes it much harder to steal from other rich people
(which of course is where the money is).

... But that's not the
point--if you wish to give examples of services that generally benefit the
rich, I'll be happy to produce as many or more that benefit only the poor,
and typically at the expense of the rich and middle classes.


You might have a hard time... of course, you're brainwashed
to think that guvmint is givin' away yore hard-earned money
to all them lazy welfare people. But it ain't so. Most
federal entitlement programs benefit people at or above
median income, according to the OMB.

Of course, once the Bush-Cheney administration finishes the
job of firing all the honest auditors & replacing capable
career administrators with rollover lackeys, we won't have
that problem.



You're not denied those benefits at all, you just don't feel like waiting
in line & filling out all the forms & suffering the condescension & hassle
of minor bureaucrats that one must go thru to get those benefits.


Wrong. I don't qualify for those benefits.

Maybe for some of them

I think you have a very mistaken idea about these programs
you're complaining about.

You probably have too high an income to qualify for college
tuition assistance, although there are always grant & loans
out there. You might not be able to get food stamps in your
county (but you probably could in some). But AFAIK you can
(if you wanted) walk into emergency rooms or county clinics
and get free health care (if you wait in line), get housing
assistance, job placement assistance, etc etc. They don't
even ask what your income is.




Uh huh. So you started out by yourself, in the woods, with nothing but
rocks & sticks, and built your business & home up from there?


Pretty damned close, actually. I literally had nothing when I graduated
from college. Oh, except for mountains of student loans, all of which I
paid back.


Oh, you went to college, and benefited from the knowledge
accrued over many generations of our civilization? I though
you singelhandedly invented absolutely everything you have &
use, made all discoveries yourself, etc etc.

In other words, you have benefitted greatly from our
socio-economic system. Of course, you worked for those
benefits and paid for them. OTOH what if nobody had been
willing to loan you the money in the first place?

You should sing along to this:
http://www.austinlizards.com/songs/t...nt_mothers.mp3
http://www.austinlizards.com/teenage...t_mothers.html



....I've thought about it at length, and I'm still
unable to find and substance to your claim that I benefit more than the poor
from governmental spending.


No you haven't thought about it, at all. You've reacted with
thoughtless indignation, misinformation, bigotry, and making
bigmouth about how you walked ten miles to school uphill
both ways in the snow. Barefoot.

I've heard it before, it didn't impress me then.

DSK