Quote Originally Posted by The Man
Neither of you have yet indicated how the government is to function in the long run if it doesn't take things from people. Because it takes money to run a government. I'm not saying the government can take anything it wants, I'm saying the government can take as much as is necessary for it to fulfill its duties. No more. Hell, at the moment it isn't even doing *that,* it's running up the budget deficit to ridiculous amounts which is only going to end up passing the problem to our children and grandchildren, and you're still complaining about it.

And you're still equating "my life" with "the product of my life," without explaining how the two are one and the same. You're still allowed to live and do whatever you want, it's just that you're not going to keep 100% of everything you earn. It's not complete freedom, no, but it's the price you pay for living in a society that has a government that actually does things for its people. It sounds to me like you just don't want to give anything you earn away to anyone and for that you'd let some starving kid in the street die. Well, if you want to live in a country like that, it's not going to be the U.S. The U.S. is a democracy, and an overwhelming majority of its populace believes it is criminally negligent for the government to allow innocent people to die on its watch.
I don't know about him, but I don't mind being taxed enough for a government to perform it's only duty (protection of individual rights).

And, at the moment, we aren't allowed to keep a whole hell of a lot because the governmental "duties" are getting to be a bit too much. Enough so that they aren't taxing us enough currently. And that's sad.

I think that the starving kid should be able and willing to get help, but I don't think that a government should take away fifteen percent of each paycheck earned for it.