You also seem to forget that those who are “good at business” are so at the expense of you and I. So there is certainly an argument that they should do perhaps a bit more than their fair share.

Fair share: someone else provided the link to Warren Buffet’s challenge. The wikipedia link you provided indicates quite clearly at the top of the list that: “It is not intended to represent the true tax burden”. Buffet, being among the richest men in the world, pays a mere 17% in taxes. So nobody is asking the rich to pay 60%, but 20% might be nice considering how many of us are paying a true 25%-40% in taxes.

By definition, most people are never going to be in the top 1%, let alone 0.01% of earners, yet most people defend low taxes for the rich because they do believe they will be in the top 1% (in the same way that we all believe ourselves to be above average drivers…)

The reason that Social Security is “improperly managed” is that Americans are not willing to make any of the few simple steps that would make the program solvent indefinitely. Don’t blame the government because you are unwilling to get your fair share (raise taxes or lower benefits compared to former generations…).

Check out the book “Nudge” when you have a chance. The subtitle is “Libertarian Paternalism”. We can’t all be expected to be experts on such diverse topics as health care, retirement, insurance, breakfast cereals, etc — and neither can our elected representative. But, I think that we could accomplish a lot in this country simply by properly incentivizing and educating the less sophisticated. One great example of this is automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans. You can opt out any time, but few people do. We need more ideas like this rather than giving people too many choices and offering them no guidance for what makes a good decision. This kind of libertarian paternalism is a great way to promote personal responsibility.

I was going to mention that as well. I think it’s easy to forget all the other countries that are fighting alongside troops – here in Canada, the media only really report casualties of Canadian soldiers. But it’s important to remember that there are many, many countries fighting in the war, including those listed above.

The government has never been good at managing these types of programs, and they never will. I would prefer to have private organizations/faith based organizations and other private individuals helping people in need. Universal Health Care and other social programs only lead to waste, sub-standard care and tons of other problems.

The rich are already paying a lopsided portion of the taxes, and they don’t need to be paying more. We need to cut wasteful spending in our government, and look at ways we can better utilize the money that we collect already.

Regarding universal health care: I’ve heard too many stories of people having to wait and wait to get surgeries, and of others just buying private insurance so they don’t have to wait. My impression is that public hospitals dealing in socialized medicine are underfunded and overworked. When I was travelling, I went to a hospital in Scotland because I wanted some x-rays done (and I was willing to pay), and I waited nearly three hours, had a doctor condescingly talk to me for 2-3 minutes and refuse to x-ray my ankle, and then just walk away from me. How is that a better alternative? I clearly had a problem with my ankle, and the doctor did absolutely nothing useful. The doctor was harried, clearly overworked, and clearly had no capacity/interest to manage everyone that she had to see. Based on that experience and what I’ve heard, I just can’t back this kind of plan. If it takes paying for private insurance in a country with socialized medicine, how is that a better deal?

As to Iraq, I’m in the camp that says we never should’ve gone there in the first place. WMD? Yeah, categorically proven *they never existed.* Bush made a political maneuver that has done nothing except get military and innocent Iraqis killed, and rob Americans of billions of dollars that could be doing something useful for America.

If the US government can’t do something as simple as manage social security in a way that guarantees it will be around in 30 years, why should they be in charge of other ‘care for the masses’ programs? I have little confidence the government can (or even wants to) care for me as it is now.

The same with this discussion. In both my current position and a former job had me in the path of those who are being supported by the system. They are not acheiving a better life because of our handouts. In fact, it appears to be the opposite and they are contirbuting to the cycle of poverty and waste.

One expample, anyone who presents themselves to an emergency room for medical care has to be seen. It doesn’t matter what their medical complaint, its the law. We are flooded with complaints from a rash, common cold, pink eye, ringworm and a list of things that most people wouldn’t even see their primary care physician to address. These same folks seem to know what show is on cable or sattelite at any given time. The taxpayers are paying for food and medical care so these individuals can pay for cable and DVDs.

I dream of the days where faith based or private organizations help out the truly needy. I thinnk they wer emore effecient and focused more on the whole person rather than how many folks they can sign up to their programs. Those few who are truly helped seem to make the choice to better themselves, their children and their community. You can’t tell me that the majority of folks being supported by the system are truly having a better life because of it.

Thanks for your wise words and well thought out opinions!

An educated and healthy workforce is paramount to America’s success.

America’s wealthy are not making the contributions that they did in the past. Every time you go to the library and pick up a book, remember that Andrew Carnegie, essentially built the original infrastructure for our modern library system. I still visit a Carnegie built library every month in Santa Monica. Today’s super wealthy are not necessarily super wealthy because they built railroads, and other infrastructure that employed people. Many of America’s most wealthy today because of paper trades. Either selling real estate, or trading on the stock market. They have very little connection to labor and most could care less if your library or school has any books or your children have health care.

All the growth in my retirement fund, comes from good trades I make. I employee no one with that wealth I am building. Do the companies I buy stock in employ people, yes, of course. But not more or less because I bought 10,000 shares. And if I made money selling short, then they definitely didn’t hire anyone because I made money off that trade.

Your naiveté about why the wealthy are wealthy reflects populist conservative media talk meant to keep the bottom of the middle class from demanding a tax system that does not allow people at the top to profit from the people at the bottom in a system that is rigged.

Bottom line, I keep more of what I earn, because I have money, and can afford to pursue all kinds of tax loopholes. And my government rewards me for this because it’s a system designed by my financial peers not yours. I can say without having any idea of what you and your husband make, that I definitely pay less of a percentage of my earnings in taxes than you do.

Read what Warren Buffett has to say about why he thinks he and other wealthy people should pay more for the good of America.

http://business.timesonline.co.....996735.ece

and read this college professor and author’s analysis of Buffet’s experiment
http://freakonomics.blogs.nyti.....amp;st=nyt

I make more money than you do. Our household income is over $150,000 a year and has been over $250,000 in other years. I want to pay my fair share so that all America’s children can get a good education. That should not be a benefit of only the wealthy or those who are able to home school, or augment with tutors. You live non-metropolitan area, so your challenges with schooling while there, pale in comparison to what poor city kids have to put up with just to try to educate themselves, while their parents work 3 and 4 jobs, just to pay the bills. All the while praying that their kids won’t get sick, because if they have to take a day off work to sit at county hospital with their child they might get fired, or they won’t be able to put food on the table for all the others because they didn’t earn pay that day.

I volunteer, I donate money, but it’s not enough, and my government needs to tax my peers to provide school buildings free from asbestos, and stifling heat rising to 110 degrees. And well equipped with books and technology that are going to produce graduates who can read and write proficiently in English and who have the opportunity to become more than just the next wave of people only skilled enough to clean the toilets at McDonald’s.