Sunday, October 5, 2008

USSA


We had a very interesting encounter with an Obama campaign worker yesterday afternoon that illustrates the very real and very deep philosophical divide between liberals and conservatives in this country. This young man was canvassing our neighborhood about 3:30 PM when he knocked on our door, and when my wife and son answered, he proceeded to ask them to support Senator Obama's candidacy. When my wife told him that we are registered Republicans and that we intend to vote for Senator McCain, the young man retorted that "we're headed for socialism" and refused to obey my wife's instructions to leave immediately. After my wife called for me and I repeated her order to leave, the young man continued to hover on our front walk and stated that "we're headed for socialism" twice more in a triumphant tone of voice before finally moving on.



This incident gets under my skin for a couple of reasons. First, the kid wouldn't shove off when we told him to do so, as if defying us would convince us to change our minds and support his candidate: Liberals have a problem with private property, after all. Second, and this is the more important aspect, this young man is absolutely convinced that a President Obama will lead us into a sort of socialist workers' paradise. What would excite him so much? Maybe the prospect of higher taxes so the bottom thirty percent of American wage earners who pay no Federal income taxes at all can receive a "rebate" from the Treasury Department? Maybe the prospect of sending another $85 billion overseas every year for "poverty relief" or of negotiating with Mahmud Ahmadinejad "without preconditions"? (As an aside, since the nutcase Iranian president refuses to abandon his country's nuclear program, what exactly does Obama think he would negotiate? Our surrender?) Maybe the prospect of rationed health care or rationed higher education or rationed energy or rationed housing? Maybe the prospect of granting citizenship to illegal immigrants or retreating from Iraq? Are these the facets of an Obama presidency that make him swoon?



Socialism has been a disaster everywhere it's been tried, and please don't offer up Scandinavia as a shining triumph: When an individual in Finland faces combined national and municipal income taxes of 53.5% plus "luxury" taxes of 17% on food and 8% on medications, that ain't success, brother, but highway robbery. Socialism destroys prosperous economies by attempting to redistribute wealth from those who earn it to those who don't, punishing success and rewarding poverty. Businesses fail, unemployment rises, interest rates go up as banks tighten credit, taxes go up to maintain high government spending and the economy stagnates - a very reliable way to commit financial suicide. My family and I lived in Germany for over six years where we saw the result of centralized planning first-hand, and I've seen it in East Berlin and North Korea: What moron would wish that kind of misery on our country? If socialism were such an incredible system, why aren't we watching American boat people risking their lives to sail to Cuba? Why doesn't George Soros work in La Paz, or Barbra Streisand vacation in Pyongyang? Because socialism sucks, my friends...it sucks out loud.

The door-knocker who was so enthusiastic for Obama yesterday was guilty of being young - ignorant, inexperienced, more energy than sense. But the candidate he represents has given him a rather evil hope, that we can be transformed into the United Socialist States of America, and I will resist that hope with all the strength I can muster.






Source: http://www.worldwide-tax.com/finland/fin_other.asp



Source: http://www.worldwide-tax.com/finland/finland_tax.asp

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