- South Dakota is receiving $31 million from the federal government to help poor people pay their heat bills. Oh! How dare my hard-earned wealth be redistributed to keep poor people from freezing. What are those poor people doing in their homes, anyway? They should go to work, where there's heat!
- South Dakota is joining 12 other states in trying to stop Brazil's JBS-Swift from buying Kansas City's National Beef Packing Company. Attorney General Larry Long says the merger would mean lower prices for farmers and higher prices for consumers. Senators Thune and Johnson support South Dakota's action. Horrors! How dare the state use my tax dollars to interfere in the sacred functioning of the market? JBS-Swift should be able to use its hard-earned money whatever way it sees fit, without government imposing artificial costs? If South Dakota wants decent prices for farmers, the state should buy its own packing plant (oh, wait, that would be socialism, too...).
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But seriously, the Joe the Plumber nuttiness about socialism and redistribution of wealth is bunk. As Will Wilkinson says on Marketplace this morning, every candidate, every tax plan, every government system, redistributes wealth.
Speaking of the State buying a processing plant, we used to own the State Cement plant until we sold it to a Mexican firm. Bet we wish we still owned it as it would put us so much closer to completing our highway projects at a much more reasonable cost. Short term gain cost us long term pain!
ReplyDeleteThere was this story about a guy who was jumping tax collectors and robbing them, because the everyday "Joe the Plumber" types were starving to death from paying their taxes. The guy then went and gave it to those people so they could eat. These people weren't missing meals a couple times a month, they were starving!
ReplyDeleteWhere does Robin Hood become a government official, robbing via taxation, from people working and RISKING all they have to be successful? Giving to people who no longer want to work because they would have to try?
Sides start to morph into each other. The Tax-collectors are now the welfare recipients, the poor are now the business owners and Robin Hood has turned into the Sheriff of Notingham.
Well, Chuck, methinks you're right on with that last morphing example, anyhow.
ReplyDeleteI agree that all cantidates that run for president have a tax plan that re-distributes wealth, but the plan that is being put forth by our Democrat nominee sounds more like welfare to me. If I become successful through hard work, determination, and a lot of time, why should people who lack an internal drive for success or a good work ethic benefit from my success? Isn't that why we get tax breaks for donating to charities?
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