[MD] Down the road of mediocrity

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting ARLO J BENSINGER JR <ajb102 at psu.edu>:

> [Platt]
> Taxes, for example, are hijacked from citizens at the point of a gun.
> 
> [Arlo]
> Taxes are a means towards a social infrastructure, enacted by democratically
> elected representatives of the people, without which the strong social
> firmament we all enjoy would be impossible. No one forces me with a gun to pay
> taxes, just like no one is forcing me not to kill anybody, I do both
> voluntarily because I understand the increased freedoms I will enjoy by doing
> so. From a protective military, to free travel on our waterways and roadways,
> to EMT services, libraries, and providing for free, open public lands, to
> providing for the basic health and food needs of our poor, to subsidizing
> corporate research, our taxes are a vital, and necessary part of the Great Land
> we live in.
> 
> Your above statement represents one of the most outrageous distortions in modern
> political discourse. 

I don't know what planet you are living on at times, Arlo. Surely you know what
ultimately happens to people who don't pay taxes due.

> [Platt]
> No kidding. Communism has slaughtered untold millions of its own subjects.
> 
> [Arlo]
> "Communism" has really not ever been seen. What you talk about is
> Totalitarianism, such as Stalinism.

Can you point to any national communist system that isn't or wasn't
totalitarian?

> [Platt]
> Bringing you and me untold riches -- the free market a fertile ground for DQ. 
> 
> [Arlo]
> Shiny toy objects, yes. But like Pirsig points out, the great power and wealth
> comes at an expense. But why point that out when "untold riches" are really the
> only thing that matters.

Yes, shiny toy objects like EKG monitors, anesthesia machines, respiratory
ventilators, cautery units, etc, etc. -- all those objects that save countless
lives. But why point this out when capitalism to you means exploitation.  


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