From: Perry The Cynic <perry@sutr.cynic.org>
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 94 12:38:00 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Shrinking government
In-Reply-To: <9412061145.AA15280@ininx>
Message-ID: <m0rF6dg-00001UC@sutr.cynic.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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jkreznar@ininx.com (John E. Kreznar) writes:

> Tax revolts do no good.  Taxes are the _result_, not the cause.

Perhaps. But anger over taxation can be a powerful galvanizing force
that gets disinterested, apolitical, apathetic people to stand up
and vote. It may not be your philosophical piece of cake, but it works.

Besides, getting angry at the result of a policy is a good first step
to questioning the policy itself. "If you don't like high taxes, think
of where all that money is going."

> The cause of big government is popular gratuitous acceptance of
> government favor.

It's hardly gratuitous. The general public feeling nowadays, that
their money is being taken whether they consent or not. Given that
(nonconsensual takings backed by prevailing law), it is perfectly
rational to "get yours", i.e. milk the resulting machine for whatever
you can do (including, i might note, disregarding prevailing IRS codes).
It's not a "government favor", it's called "getting back your money."

> If you want to shrink government, you've got to begin by changing the
> minds of a hundred million of your neighbors who think it's civilized to
> take a government job or contract, accept social security, apply for an
> SBA loan or FEMA assistance, and on down the list.

Not necessarily. It is quite enough to convince many of your neighbors
that they (a) are not getting their tax money's worth back from the
government(s), and that (b) there's a better way. Right now, it seems
that (a) is gathering steam. The problem is expressing (b) - which
many of us are convinced of - in terms Mr./Ms. Average Voter can
agree with... and "taking money from government is uncivilized" does
not strike me as very effective.
  -- perry
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Perry The Cynic                                             perry@cynic.org
To a blind optimist, an optimistic realist must seem like an Accursed Cynic.
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