Some Reflections on Democracy in America
2nd October 2009
Jerry Pournelle has some thoughts on the subject.
Burke said that for a man to love his country, his country ought to be lovely, and there is something to be said for that. Investment in the general welfare was written into the Constitution, but that meant harbors, roads, canals, parks, public buildings and monuments, all of which had to be paid for by taxing the productive — almost by definition the unproductive don’t have much to tax — but it hardly meant a direct transfer of resources from the productive to the unproductive.
Apparently that’s just the way things are. If you’re productive you owe it to those less fortunate. And there is a class that has the right to pay itself — by taxing you — for taking your output and distributing it among those who weren’t so fortunate as you. Get used to it.