Taxes and the AARP

[whingknutt]

Last night I heard a report that the AARP was starting up it's campaign to crush support for Bush's Social Security Reforms. I have mixed feelings about his reforms, so I didn't really care one way or the other about their position. What really bugged me was in financing the propaganda that supports their agenda, they draw on a budget that is

Comments

[creatrixx]

sorry, libertarian, it ain't gonna happen. In this case, your idea points out how libertarianism is like voluntary communism (voluntary communism sounds like a bad idea to me.) If all of these private groups put money into what was needed because it was the right thing to do and people want to do what's right... then we'd all be okay.

I'm an optimist, but I like to keep myself grounded in reality.

[whingknutt]

I'm not saying that they should put money into what was needed, I'm saying that the people that normally pay dues to these orginizations should quit complaining about taxes and shouldn't be using every possible loophole to reduce their taxes. Concerning taxes I have a similar feeling to that which I had when I was in elementary school, and found that I enjoyed it. I didn't understand why there was so much social pressure, both from the adult world and from my peers, to dislike school. It was a chore, something to be avoided, even if it would ultimately be the cornerstone of your adult success. While taxes aren't the cornerstone of individual success, they do play a terribly important role in our nation's success, and our society's success. Now, while I'm currently just as guilty as the next guy for trying to reduce my taxes, at least I'm not paying equal, if not more, to special interest groups that lobby and advertise instead of taking action.

[creatrixx]

I agree with you on the school and tax thing. But that has something to do with my democratic tendancies. I don't think tax cuts are the answer and I felt it every time there was a town budget vote. The old people would all go and vote to reduce the budget and take money away from the schools (and also to take some of that remaining money and put it towards a golf course) and we would start to lose programs and share textbooks. As a child I was given visable proof of what reducing taxes and thus budgets did.

And I also understand the difference between what could happen if everyone put money towards something useful rather than useless and whether or not it would happen.

Although advertising is not completely useless. it's a way of educating people, even if it is, by its nature, biased. If the only ones who are actively getting their say out there are the government officials, then the government could pretty much get what they wanted. Propaganda is important from both sides.