[quote=“nickle, post:172, topic:91368”]
so what evidence is there that I’m wrong. You don’t present any. [/quote]
I was merely confirming that you’re open to changing your opinion. Because if you’re not open to that, this is all just a performance.
Given that you’re open to changing your opinion, let’s look at this purported evidence for your position:
[QUOTE]
Look at your national insurance [in the UK] or social security payments in the US. That’s real wealth being transferred to the state. [/QUOTE]
This is the first statement that you need to re-examine in light of alternative evidence.
Here are three pieces of evidence:
- The money Americans pay into social security goes to two things. The first is the cost of running the social security administration. The second is one of two trust funds that are used to issue payments to people who receive social security checks. This is simply how the program works. If you don’t think this is how the program works, you should abandon your current idea.
- The payments from social security are heavily weighted to those with the lowest income. It keeps my fellow Americans out of poverty, doing great good for many in their time of most dire need. If you don’t think people actually benefit from social security payments, you need to abandon your current idea.
- One current problem facing the SSA is that not taking in enough to cover what it’s giving out, which is evidence in favor of the funds I pay going to people, and not just accumulating in some administrator’s wallet. If you think that social security payments just go to bureaucrats, you need to abandon your current idea.
So you can clearly see that the wealth that is transferred from my paycheck goes toward helping people who need it, not simply to “the state.” I know people who are retired. I am making their lives more livable.
That is of tremendous benefit to me. A bit of economic security is necessary for the respectful treatment of other human beings, especially those who can’t participate fully in our capitalist society due to old age and infirmity. I’d be totally on board with expanding and strengthening the program, so that it can better help more people. I’d even be willing to pay more taxes to see that happen.
What I get out of paying that tax is a world where fewer elderly people freeze to death because they can’t afford heat. I would gladly pay to help keep your grandmother in bus tickets and applesauce and in a heated home until her dying day.
The question naturally arises: why would you not do that for mine?
