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I have to laugh when I read your post because you use "redistribute wealth" to refer to bank robbery. I have to imagine you have likely referred to taxation as
by wavefunction 11y ago
I have to laugh when I read your post because you use "redistribute wealth" to refer to bank robbery. I have to imagine you have likely referred to taxation as "theft" at least once.
- kej 11y agoI'm gonna guess that PhDs working on non-profit public domain cancer research probably don't overlap all that much with the taxation-is-theft crowd.
- wavefunction 11y agoWhich part is supposed to convince me otherwise? The PhD? Non-profit public domain cancer research? There's nothing inherent in either of those personal qualities to suggest such. I have never heard anyone refer to theft as "redistributing wealth" without corresponding usages of "taxation = theft."
- talmand 11y agoI can see theft being excused as redistributing wealth and I don't necessarily think taxation is theft. But I also say I can see a situation where redistributing wealth is not theft and in some cases I can think that taxation is, in fact, theft. It all depends on context.
- kej 11y agoI just meant that working in the non-profit sector and working on public domain research generally coincide with wanting to benefit society at the expense of your own bank account, whereas the taxes are theft people would usually preserve their own bank account at the expense of society.
- dnautics 11y agoYou should check your assumptions. There are plenty of people who are opposed to public (as in state-sponsored) good works that think it should be done publically (as in out in the open) through private funding. “Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.” -Frederic Bastiat, ca. 1850
- sp332 11y agoThe non-profit is presumably tax-exempt, which doesn't help your point.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoHonestly though, non-profit public domain cancer research should be tax-supported.
- dnautics 11y agoSurprise! I am in that camp (sort of; I think individual income taxes are bad, but not corporate taxes, or tariffs - as long as they are indiscriminate and not used as a tool for social engineering). I'm not that dogmatic about it, there are far worse things that states do.
- kej 11y agoMea culpa. While my general experience doesn't show much overlap between the groups, my making assumptions about you was just as wrong as the other guy making assumptions about you. Carry on with your interesting research, whatever your opinions on taxation.
- function_seven 11y agoHe isn't using the term to refer to bank robbery, his hypothetical bank robber is. Just like right now you did not refer to taxation as "theft", even though that phrase is in your comment.