Taxation

The way a democratic nation runs is at one level pretty simple.

The people vote representatives into office who decide what people should do for themselves and what is important enough that it should be done for everyone by a bigger entity, aka government.

For example, no Libertarian, no matter how big his gun collection, is going to defend his home against an Chinese Air Force bombing run. So we band together, all pay a little money, and get weapons that are big enough to handle the job. Like intercontinental ballistic missles.

So, you've got things we all know we have to do for ourselves, like earn our rent, and things we want, but can't possibly do for ourselves, like defend against invading armies.

And then there's the stuff in the middle that we disagree about.

Like health care. Should we all pay for our doctors, or should we pay into a health care fund that pays for our doctors?

Well, of course, almost none of us can pay for the seriously expensive things doctors do, like remove cancers. But only a small percentage of people have that done. So an extra dollar from the rest of us cures that unfortunate person of their cancer.

What do you get as an end result? People with cancer know their treatment will be covered. The rest of us pay a small premium. What do we get for that premium? The security of knowing that if we get cancer, we'll be covered too.

Now everyone talks about "why should I pay for this other guy's problem"? Rick Santelli doesn't want the public to be on the hook for the mortgage that his neighbor took out. But Rick doesn't protest when his pockets are stuffed with money by tax cuts on the superwealthy.

Ok, fine. No Republican wants to do nuthin' for no one else. Altruism is the antithesis of what they believe. Let's concede that point. America (at least Tea Party America) is a bunch of selfish whiners who want want want, but who think it's immoral to give to the common welfare through taxes or even the existence of government itself. Fine, that's their right. When they have troubles if they think I'm gonna help them they've got another thing coming, but that's neither here nor there.

But left out of the debate is the value of the security of knowing that you're covered. And this is why "socialist" nations do so much better. People know they're covered and they go on with their lives, being productive, earning money, being useful people who add to the strength of a society. In America, we all worry, "OMG I gotta save like crazy, cause the health insurance company's gonna drop me once the lunatic Republicans repeal the health care law and replace it with just handing money to Wellpoint", or "I can't move because I'll lose my coverage", or "I can't change jobs because the new one doesn't cover me and because of some pre-existing condition, I'll never get covered", or "even if they do cover me, they can just jack premiums up 30% a year and no one can stop them".

This insecurity is completely devastating to the productivity of a nation.