The Insanity of A Paying for B

One of the political rallying points of the American Revolution was 'no taxation without representation.' Behind such noble sounding rhetoric lies the truth. The American people did not want to finance the British. It is my guess that if the taxes collected in the colonies were spent to benefit the colonies that our treason against the Crown might never have occured. This is important today because our politicians are playing at the same games that the British were with the tea tax (and all the others). The biggest example is of course tobacco. We tax tobacco, and sue tobacco companies (who manufacture a legal product, by the way) while subsidizing the growth of tobacco. Does this seem odd? Not really. Politicians generate a huge surplus which they can slush around to repair roads, hospitals, welfare programs, and whathaveyou. Two questions: What happens when the smokers quit? What happens when the smokers decide that they don't want to pay for everyone else's stuff any more? It's true that they are a relatively small group any more, but the government has figured out that they need more revenue and they can get it from the second of the ATF trifecta, alcohol. Soon all who drink alcohol will be funding projects that they may or may not benefit from, but that non-drinkers will benefit from as well. What will be the result? Probably nothing at first. but then, as the taxes rise, anger will rise with it. Let's assume we can all collectively bully the drinkers as well. When that source of revenue goes dry, what next? The logical place to go next is guns and related products. Those guys will be harder to bully. But even if we can, how long until they start taxing you to subsidize me, even though my lifestyle is better than yours?

The short version of this point is that taxes should be spent where they're collected. I don't mind gas tax used to take care of the highways, even (begrudgingly) to make refining plants 'greener.' But I do mind gas tax being used to fund aids research. And you should too, not that we don't want a cure for aids, but the confiscation and redistribution of wealth, whether by the pirate or the politician is inexcusable.