Gene Wolfe's Politics

brunians at brunians.org · 31 Mar 2009, 21:37 · from 2009-March.txt.gz

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From: brunians at brunians.org (brunians at brunians.org)
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:37:23 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: (urth) Gene Wolfe's Politics
In-Reply-To: <49D28BE0.80502 at verizon.net>
References: <mailman.1.1238533680.13689.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
	<49D28BE0.80502 at verizon.net>
Message-ID: <14905.67.142.130.28.1238535443.squirrel at brunians.org>


If you would have peace, prepare for war.

What do you think the main purpose of government is, David, if not to
maintain the military?




.


>  [1] the military and everything pertaining thereunto,
>
> There's your "armed robbery" right there. ------------------------------
> Message: 4 Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:16:58 -0400 (EDT) From:
> brunians at brunians.org Subject: Re: (urth) Gene Wolfe's Politics To: "The
> Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net> Message-ID:
> <5572.67.142.130.25.1238527018.squirrel at brunians.org> Content-Type:
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>
>>>> >>> Who do estate taxes get passed on to?
>>>>
>
>>> >> As far as I know, estates are only left by natural persons, that is,
>>> >> they are not paid by businesses.
>>>
>
>> > But how do they not work on the rich people who own the businesses?
>>
>
> (A) Whose money is it? My point of view is that it belongs to the rich
> people and as their property should be disposed of in the manner in which
> they choose. There are other points of view (see below).
>
> (B) Define 'work'. Certainly it does work as a means of limiting social
> mobility, but is that the purpose of taxation? To my mind taxation is
> armed robbery, only justifiable for the absolutely necessary functions of
> government, which are:
>
>  [1] the military and everything pertaining thereunto,
>  [2] building and maintaining infrastructure (taxation to support a rail
> system would be perfectly legitimate from my point of view) and
>  [3] big science, big enough that no private concern would want to do
> (space programs and superconducting supercolliders and so on).
>
>
>
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