Quote from: farlack on April 25, 2013, 08:12:44 PM

1. I don't go to school, and my kids are not old enough, and will go to private when they are.
Why should I have to pay for schools? If I had the choice I wouldn't.

So you have an educated workforce that can keep up with technology. If you're an employer with nothing to sift through but a bunch of dummies, you won't be able to compete. If you're an uneducated employee, you won't be employed for long. And in all cases, it's nice to be able to have an intelligent conversation with one's neighbors.

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2. I hardly use the roads, and when I go long distance, I pay a toll to use the road.
Why should I be paying for roads all over the state of Florida? If I had the choice I wouldn't.

Because roads are the glue that bind our culture together. Because without decent roads you'd have no cost-effective access to the goods of the world. Because without roads you'd die of your first heart attack in an ambulance with a broken axle. Because without tolls you can actually get somewhere - with toll roads everywhere, a holiday road trip would proceed at an average speed of about 25mph. Because roads are a part of the strategic defense of a country.

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3. I don't go to hospitals, why should I pay for others to go? Don't get yourself injured.
I hardly leave my house, why should I pay because some idiot ran into a tree on his motorcycle?

Because you will, fool. You think you're going to live forever, without any health problems at all? You want doctors working on you who have little experience because nobody can afford their services? You want that idiot who ran into the tree fixed up, so he isn't a burden on all of us for the next forty years - or do you want him to get repaired and - having learnt a good lesson - walk out of the hospital and resume whatever his contributions to our society might be (keeping in mind that he must be contributing something, if he could afford the motorcycle in the first place)?

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As you can see, I'm selfish, just like most of the population. If I don't use it, why pay for it?
Though, knowing society will fall without everyone else to using my money, I will pay up.

These 'points' you raise are about what makes a society, and what holds it together. And they are a part of what is called the Commons. Without the willingness to pay for something we will never use, at some level, we will never get what we need to survive. Never. Because: "As you can see, I'm selfish, just like most of the population."

The Commons is exactly the same as an insurance policy. You pay in - and you pay much less than any given service will cost you individually if you should happen to use it without 'coverage' - and you know that you can always get it out if necessity demands.

I've got no problems at all with taxation. My problems are with those who do it, how they do it, and what they use the money for.

"Let me get this straight:

You want to defund Social Security.
And take people's security in the future away.
You want to defund Medicare
And take away their security now.
You want to defund Planned Parenthood
So we can have more unwanted children and more sexually transmitted diseases
You want to defund education
So that only those who can afford a private education will be educated
You want to defund HUD
And put poor people on the street
And you want everyone to be able to buy assault rifles?
What the hell could possibly go wrong?" ~Anon