Social justice simply means that people are entitled to basic human rights and equality. And a part of that is in our tax system: would it be fair for a guy earning millions of dollars a year to contribute the same amount as a person earning 15k ?

After reading some of the posts on here, it’s sad to see such bitter rhetoric. It’s good to care about yourself, but even children can do that.

Most important- we can all worship as we please, and all have a free and equal vote regardless of income, race, sex or religion. Do you realize how radical that is? This was not true in any country less than 100 years ago! (France did not give women the right to vote until 1944.)
These are unprecedented achievements in history. This is unheard of in much of the world right now.
As Thomas Sowell has noted ,”the perfect is the enemy of the good”. We already have the most just system in history. We have the highest level of private charitable giving per capita in the world. This is the result of free enterprise and our constitutional republic. No other system has achieved this level of equality and prosperity and freedom. It is not perfect- but it is the best there is, and we should stick to it if we truly care about the weak and the poor.

HEY!! Let’s clear this up…

It is NOT a metaphor – it is an analogy.

Now, then, back to the show

Heh. No, Mo’. Income is not redistributed to create highways.

Federal tax dollars are used to purchase the creation of highways. Construction companies and construction workers earn the Taxpayers’ dollars spent on creation and maintenance of highways. Same with fire and law enforcement departments – firefighters and police earn that money. In all of these cases, federal tax dollars are paid out for goods and services rendered, to those who choose to earn them. Moreover, in all of these cases, everyone benefits from these expenditures – everyone can choose to use the roads, everyone benefits from the transportation services made possible by the roads, and everyone benefits from fire and police departments: the so-called “poor”, the so-called “middle-class”, and even the so-called “rich”. Everyone.

Income is redistributed when it’s taken from one person and given to another person – in the form of welfare – in return for doing nothing whatsoever apart from breathing, taking up space and/or producing offspring. Income is redistributed when it’s taken from one person and spent on another individual’s behalf for their individual benefit. Unlike the above, in these cases, the individual welfare beneficiary does not earn the redistributed funds. In these cases, not everyone benefits. In fact, no one benefits from income redistribution except for the welfare beneficiary who didn’t earn the funds, and the commissar who is guaranteed social compliance and/or political support in return for the welfare check funded by other people’s money.

But I have the advantage over all of you. When I was a lad, I did read “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There”.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master–that’s all.”