Human Need or Corporate Greed?

I saw a T-Shirt the other day, and here's what it said on the back:

Human Need

or

Corporate Greed?

The choice is clear.

Vote Democrat

So that's it, then. The Republicans are there solely to make rich people richer (who presumably have no "right" to be rich), while the Democrats will play Robin Hood and rob force them to happily give their money to people who have less. It's apparently that simple to these folks. Ah, to see the world with such polarized eyes. Probably one reason why that world view is so popular. It's easy to digest. But like most things that are easy to digest, eating that stuff alone is bad for you.

Now frankly, I as a Libertarian type have no use for government programs designed to outright benefit corporations for the sake of corporate benefit. Frankly, I have little use for most government programs, especially Federal ones. On the other hand, a government policy of not taxing them at exorbidant rates just because people feel it's not "fair" that they make so much money is fine by me. Your fair share is a percentage of what you make. (update: Brother Jeffmon asks "why is that even fair?" -- he has a good point. But while a flat tax rather than a flat tax rate could be argued as being more fair, progressives like the opposite approach which is decidedly less fair.) Anyway, why should that percentage go up just because you make more? And that's basically what they're saying. You don't have a right to be that rich. You must be doing something evil.

Ah, but there are people who simply can't afford to live if we tax them at all. Well, we already have exemptions for people at the low end of the income scale to ensure that we're not taking bread off of their tables.

People who really really think of the world in the terms that t-shirt put it should really read Bill Whittle's two-part essay "Trinity". (part 2 is here.) As a matter of fact, even people don't think of the world that way but have trouble expressing it to others ought to read it.