“It’s the difference between coercion and free association and trade.”
David Harsanyi has a great column in the Denver Post today. It’s funny, but a good reminder of what awaits us if we’re foolish enough to buy the Obama hype.
Obama laughs off the charge of socialist behavior — and to be fair, socialism isn’t the precise term to affix to his ideas. It’s more like Robin Hood economics. On a recent campaign stop, Obama joked that, by the end of the week, McCain would be accusing him “of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten.”
A funny line. But, of course, Obama’s lofty intellect must comprehend the fundamental difference between sharing your G.I. Joe with a friend and having a bully snatch your G.I. Joe for the collective, prepubescent good. It’s the difference between coercion and free association and trade. In practical terms, it’s the difference between government cheese and a meal at Ruth’s Chris.
Now, I’m not suggesting Obama intends to transform this nation into 1950s-era Soviet tyranny or that he will possess the power to do so. I’m suggesting Obama is praising and mainstreaming an economic philosophy that has failed to produce a scintilla of fairness or prosperity anywhere on Earth. Ever.
If you believe that “fairness” — a childishly subjective idea that ought to be quarantined to playgrounds and Berkeley city council meetings — should be meted out by the autocrats inhabiting Washington, D.C., your faith will be duly rewarded.
You know, once upon a time, the stated purpose of taxation was to fund public needs like schools and roads, assist those who could not help themselves, defend our security and freedom, and, yes, occasionally offer a bailout to sleazy fat cats.
Obama is the first major presidential candidate in memory to assert that taxation’s principal purpose should be redistribution.
Read it all.
Other Posts of Interest:
- There’s a Difference Between Commerce and Coercion
- And Somehow, Lightning Did Not Strike Him Down…
- “Senator Government”
Category: Cool Columnists and Wicked Writers, The Economy and Your Money, The Obamessiah
