quote:
The classic, core belief of conservatism is that the government is a drain on society, it takes money away from the people who earned it and out of the pubilc sector.
If this is truly what conservatives believe, then it really doesn't reflect reality.
How can the federal taxes and regulations on business that go to keeping our air and water clean, for example, be a "drain on society"?
How can paying for government agencies and passing regulatory laws to prevent companies from selling unsafe products to consumers be a "drain on society"?
How does goverment protection of wilderness areas and the National Parks system "drain society"? I mean, we know that most business interests would log these forests and mine the Grand Canyon if there was profit to be made and if they weren't protected, don't we? We have the Alaska pipeline battle as evidence in favor of this view.
Etc.
Those government interventions seem like good investments that benefit everyone, wouldn't you say?
You also realize, don't you, that it is a popular myth that most of the wealth in the US is earned.
It isn't earned. It is inherited.
Also, much of
that money is invested, so the people who have those portfolios don't do much of anything to "earn" more. You know the expression; "let your money work for you".
So the mythology of the "deserving, hard-working" rich who "pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps" and who "started with nothing and built an empire" is truly a rare phenomena.
Edited by nator, : No reason given.
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