Thursday, January 29, 2009

Holy Rings Hollow

For a Christian nation we can sound pretty selfish. I tuned into some talk show on that liberal NPR station and heard a comment to this effect:

Host: "You can't expect us to return to those years when the rich were getting dollars over a certain amount taxed at those outrageous rates. No one would expect that, would they!"

I didn't hear anyone call him on that comment. Amazing.

We have created the safest society in the world to make money. Lots of money. Our institutions protect business from physical theft and intellectual theft. It's a privilege to be able to build a business in this environment. With the privilege comes a little price tag. We don't dictate how much the boss has to share with the employees beyond a minimum wage. But we do assert that it costs money to create this ideal business environment. So we ask folks who make a lot of money to pay more supporting the government and this ideal business environment than folks who make a little money. It's awfully hard to argue with the rationale that those who have profited most from our society should pay more to support it than those less well off.

It is a different question entirely what government programs we should support and how much government we should have. But the question of who pays how much to support whatever government we have seems pretty straight forward to me. And I'm barely Christian at all.

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