Rossputin.com: Rational Thinking About Our World

So Barack Obama wants to talk about bitterness??? How's this:

Just as I tell my wife how difficult the past year has been financially, not least what I think is happening to the value of our home (although I believe we're in a demographically desirable location), I get an e-mail from my accountant telling me to send 5-figures of my hard-earned money to the government(s).

I don't object to funding my "fair share" of the legitimate functions of government.

But boy do I feel bitter about graduated, aka "progressive" tax rates, where for some reason I get to pay not only more tax, but a higher tax rate, than someone who earns less. And boy do I feel bitter about being forced, upon pain of prison, socialized medical, socialized retirement, socialized drugs for old people, and various pet projects of politicians who use my money to buy votes for themselves.

I don't know what's going to cause people to create the next "Reagan Revolution", nor do I know where we're going to find the leader whom people will follow in that direction.

What I do know is if it doesn't happen relatively soon, this country will have all the economic problems which we've almost gleefully watched France and Germany suffer through during the last generation.

Just as much of the rest of the civilized world is moving away from socialism, having seen its devastating effects, our politicians (mostly Democrats, but the GOP has been far from an effective wall against them) are moving toward socialism, too stupid to learn from other peoples' mistakes and insistent on making them ourselves.

As Bastiat once wrote, economic plans through which the government provides publicly desirable outcomes in the short term are almost always economically fatal in the long term.

And today I am very bitter about being forced to fund my own economic suicide.