Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!
Somebody on food stamps is spending someone else's money created by someone else's productivity while producing nothing of his or her own. This is basically a free rider problem (reaping benefits while paying nothing into the system). Whether or not that person gets food stamps has no bearing on whether or not that money exists in the first place - it was created by somebody else doing something of value.
The case of the rich guy who has a job and manages to offset all federal income taxes is still paying into the system (payroll tax, property tax, state tax, sales tax) with money s/he earned from that job. The offsets presumably represent desirable behaviors from the perspective of the government, so those also put money into the system in some fashion (investing in a company and having it go bust would be one example).
To somehow equate the two scenarios as if they are equal because "OMG both are subsidized!!!1!!!" is over simplification at its worst. One of the two is productive, and it isn't the one on food stamps/welfare.
Somebody on food stamps is spending someone else's money created by someone else's productivity while producing nothing of his or her own. This is basically a free rider problem (reaping benefits while paying nothing into the system). Whether or not that person gets food stamps has no bearing on whether or not that money exists in the first place - it was created by somebody else doing something of value.
The case of the rich guy who has a job and manages to offset all federal income taxes is still paying into the system (payroll tax, property tax, state tax, sales tax) with money s/he earned from that job. The offsets presumably represent desirable behaviors from the perspective of the government, so those also put money into the system in some fashion (investing in a company and having it go bust would be one example).
To somehow equate the two scenarios as if they are equal because "OMG both are subsidized!!!1!!!" is over simplification at its worst. One of the two is productive, and it isn't the one on food stamps/welfare.