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A dollar can only change hands so many times before it's worthless unless it's going towards actual value-adding goods/services. Considering how deprived the ge

by cc439 8y ago

A dollar can only change hands so many times before it's worthless unless it's going towards actual value-adding goods/services. Considering how deprived the general population is for funds to spend on value-added goods, I don't think taking $6,250 from every person in the state just to support a tiny, tiny fraction of the population is doing much good. That and a large portion of pensioners flee to states without an income tax or at least states with a better climate and lower cost of living. The statistics of state employees leaving my home state for such states alone are shocking.

closeparen 8y ago
>I don't think taking $6,250 from every person in the state just to support a tiny, tiny fraction of the population is doing much good. The government paying its debts and not committing wage theft is a public good. It's a pivotal decision point in whether we are a functioning civilization with a rule of law or a third-world regime on its way down. It may be convenient in this one isolated instance to renege, but the knock-on effects of the message it sends - that public servants will be paid only when convenient - will be huge. Although that may be just as well, if you hope to minimize the role of government going forward.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > It may be convenient in this one isolated instance to renege, but the knock-on effects of the message it sends - that public servants will be paid only when convenient - will be huge. Although that may be just as well, if you hope to minimize the role of government going forward. If you want to reduce the role of government to only a narrow core of tasks for which there is no alternative, you probably still don't want to send the message that workers in government will be arbitrarily deprived of the compensation for which they've agreed to labor, since presumably in that case it's even more essential that the set of tasks to which government is reduced is done by people who are competent and motivated.
- saosebastiao 8y ago
  The rule of law should also have something to say about making promises on other people's backs. Why should my generation have to pay just because some previous generation made a promise against my generation's earnings without my generation's consent?
- conanbatt 8y ago
  > The government paying its debts and not committing wage theft is a public good. Raising a tax on someone to pay the public benefit of another is also wage theft. Please remember the State doesnt have assets of its own, everything it has it takes from someone else. So if you find it reasonable to pay a special tax on minimum wage jobs to pay a 55-old retired man 70 grand a month of a benefit, you can volunteer your wage and your salary to achieve such a nice ideal.

by cc439 8y ago

closeparen 8y ago

>I don't think taking $6,250 from every person in the state just to support a tiny, tiny fraction of the population is doing much good. The government paying its debts and not committing wage theft is a public good. It's a pivotal decision point in whether we are a functioning civilization with a rule of law or a third-world regime on its way down. It may be convenient in this one isolated instance to renege, but the knock-on effects of the message it sends - that public servants will be paid only when convenient - will be huge. Although that may be just as well, if you hope to minimize the role of government going forward.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> It may be convenient in this one isolated instance to renege, but the knock-on effects of the message it sends - that public servants will be paid only when convenient - will be huge. Although that may be just as well, if you hope to minimize the role of government going forward. If you want to reduce the role of government to only a narrow core of tasks for which there is no alternative, you probably still don't want to send the message that workers in government will be arbitrarily deprived of the compensation for which they've agreed to labor, since presumably in that case it's even more essential that the set of tasks to which government is reduced is done by people who are competent and motivated.
saosebastiao 8y ago
The rule of law should also have something to say about making promises on other people's backs. Why should my generation have to pay just because some previous generation made a promise against my generation's earnings without my generation's consent?
conanbatt 8y ago
> The government paying its debts and not committing wage theft is a public good. Raising a tax on someone to pay the public benefit of another is also wage theft. Please remember the State doesnt have assets of its own, everything it has it takes from someone else. So if you find it reasonable to pay a special tax on minimum wage jobs to pay a 55-old retired man 70 grand a month of a benefit, you can volunteer your wage and your salary to achieve such a nice ideal.