[lit-ideas] Re: Paying taxes for months on end
- From: Brian <cabrian@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 17:50:16 -0500
On May 25, 2005, at 7:24 AM, Ursula Stange wrote:
> No trouble. It was just a google away. But it tells a very
> incomplete
> story.
For what I wanted it for - to show that Mike's hyperbolic statement
about the U.S. military is false - its story is perfect.
> If you look at the countries at the top, they are all poor,
> third world countries, many with dictatorships and we're not surprised
> that they put defense so far ahead of quality-of-life for their
> citizens. I think the founding fathers would be dismayed at how
> far up
> that list the U.S. is.
I think they would be far more dismayed at how far we've strayed from
the Constitution with as much ink as they used warning of the dangers
of centralized federal power that usurped state sovereignty. After
all, the national defense is specifically mentioned as legitimate use
of money collected.
> The other problem is the sheer amount of money that 3 percent of GDP
> represents. Imagine a poor family that has to spend fifty percent of
> its income to put a roof over its head. Then a rich family who
> spends
> only 6 percent. In a chart arranged like this (and with no further
> information), it would appear that the poor family must live in a
> palace
> compared to the rich family.
I'm not following you. Do you think an adult would look at this
chart and believe Eritrea is more secure or stronger militarily than
the U.S.? If it was just a pure dollar chart that would be far
skewed too where at least with GDP% you can see an overall picture.
~Brian~
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