Re: Liberals: Defend capital gains taxes

E.F. Hokie wrote, On 4/20/08 1:04 PM:
> On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:00:39 -0500, Chris Bellomy wrote...
> 
>> E.F. Hokie wrote, On 4/20/08 10:15 AM:
>>> On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 05:51:10 -0700 (PDT), J.C. "Watts" Enslin wrote...
>>>
>>>> On Apr 19, 12:21 am, E.F. Hokie <nos...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>>> On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:15:32 -0500, Chris Bellomy wrote...
>>>>>> Joey Telemachus wrote, On 4/18/08 11:08 PM:
>>>>>>> Why should the government get a free ride on the upside while the
>>>>>>> individual has to bear the entire burden of risk?
>>>>> ^^ EXACTLY!!! ^^ ... as for why, as my accountant says, "The law
isn't
>>>>> fair, and the government has all the power.  Pay up or go to jail."
>>>> What does risk have to do with anything?
>>> It has everything to do with it.  The only winner 100% of the time is 
>>> the government... that seems justified to you?
>> Damn government, with its fleet of Ferraris and vacations on
>> the French Riviera, flaunting its wealth...
> 
> There are quite a few people reading this group who have seen millions 
> upon millions of taxpayer dollars wasted, first-hand... you really wanna

> traipse down this particular path, Chris?

You miss my admittedly obscure point, which is that you are dumn
and stoopidl. No, wait, that's the point of most of my other posts.

No, my point is that government, properly conceived, is the
instrument of the common good, and not an entity with financial
self-interest beyond achieving its mandate as dictated by the
voters.

Now, you may fairly respond that government often is executed
to line the pockets of the corrupt, which is obviously true.
My counterpoint is that the moment we start crafting law that
assumes government to be a corrupt actor, the corruption becomes
absolutely endemic to the institution and the American experiment
fails. At some point, we have to assume that we *can* create a
government that comes pretty close to doing the right thing,
even if the current iteration doesn't.

cb