I'm 30 now and as always conservative thought has warped another sole. I also grew up in a democratic house hold hmmmm. I would have to say that the main reason for my change in views is summed up quite nicely in the last paragraph of Midas's text. Hand outs do not work. Welfare, as honorable as the concept is, doesn't work. Why? compasion often over looks veiled greed. We see what we want so that we can feel better about ourselves. What we are actually doing is hamstringing our future finances. Thanks for your view Midas it was well thought out and very true IMO.
I don't know. The reasons why welfare is a difficult subject is, by and large, due to poor administration of the program. We are an incredibly wealthy society, and to turn our backs on those that can't have would be inexcusable. The problem is a comprehensive division of 'can't' and 'can but don't'. The whole work training program for those people on the system was an excellent idea that was the victim of poor administration... Future finances, however, is not being hamstrung by welfare systems. It's being looted by the government or distributed among those who don't need it. Take for instance the tax argument on dividend income, a significant source of tax revenue obtained from the finance and investment markets. Some may remember that it flew under the banner of 'double taxation', and won because people thought it made sense. But it didn't - and the people who pushed it knew it didn't. It's no more double taxation than the tax that comes out of your check as an employee. Isn't that double taxed? The company paid you with revenues earned, which were subject to income tax. How about the fact that you pay income tax when you earn it, and sales tax when you use it? Now it's triple taxed... wait, there's more. Now that you've paid tax when you earn it, and paid tax when you purchased it, now you have to pay tax for owning it - introduce the personal property tax. Now, instead of focusing on this problem, they step back and cut dividend taxes - because that's just not fair. I don't think it would be a surprise to anyone to know which social class earns the most dividend income. The drain is there, alright, it's just not where it aughtta be.
Midas, you old hounddog. It actually isn't an old saying. It's a badly paraphrased Winston Churchill quote. And as we all know Churchill was a British conservative which means he was at least twice as conservative as any American conservative could possibly be. He said, and I quote: "Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains." - Winston Churchill I believe that we have a lot of young Conservatives here. I'm not sure how many old Liberals there are. I guess it depends on your definition of old. You set the dividing point at 30 yrs. old. Hum? I do know that I don't favor either young Conservatives or old Liberals. They both kind of creep me out. They both seem stuck in the past to me. I guess I generally favor open mindedness no matter what the age. That would pretty much explain my philosophy. Just keep an open mind.
hey, don't blame me - this thread was intended as good natured ribbing. It has now turned into every other thread in the top five of this forum.
Well, first you have to reach a social status of 'crochety old coot'. I don't hand out threads to everyone.
He may just have the monopoly on that one. I will endeavor to aspire to his level of crochetiness - if that is a word. We are in awe Old One.
