Thursday, April 01, 2004
Regressive Taxes
I just read this in an email and thought it bears repeating...
The income tax, and social security taxes are regressive.
The more productive you are, the more that they penalize you.
| The income tax, and social security taxes are regressive.
The more productive you are, the more that they penalize you.
The Principle at Issue
Someone on a message board I frequent was complaining that the U.S. does not seem to treat the human rights violations of various foreign nations equally. This was my (mildly edited) response.
"The fact that individual rights violations of some sort are a necessary cause for a free nation to get involved in the internal affairs of another nation does not mean that they are a sufficient cause. The sufficient cause should be that the the actions being taken by the free nation serve to somehow protect the rights of the free nations own citizens.
A free nation has the moral right to invade a slave state any time it chooses to do so, but this does not mean that they have an obligation to do so."
The basic point is that a nation should act in its self-interest in regard to its foreign affairs. It is intended as a principled statement on what basis a nation should deal with other nations who are violating their own citizens rights, rather than a defense of any particular policy of the US.
| "The fact that individual rights violations of some sort are a necessary cause for a free nation to get involved in the internal affairs of another nation does not mean that they are a sufficient cause. The sufficient cause should be that the the actions being taken by the free nation serve to somehow protect the rights of the free nations own citizens.
A free nation has the moral right to invade a slave state any time it chooses to do so, but this does not mean that they have an obligation to do so."
The basic point is that a nation should act in its self-interest in regard to its foreign affairs. It is intended as a principled statement on what basis a nation should deal with other nations who are violating their own citizens rights, rather than a defense of any particular policy of the US.
