TANSTAAFL

I see that it's been a little over a week since I last posted. No reason for it really, I just haven't found anything that's caught my interest. But, since you asked so nicely, I'm just super, thanks for asking.

There was a bit of furor this past week at the Refuge, it seems that my company-sponsored health care plan didn't follow me into the new year. A few phone calls and emails, and just as mysteriously as it was gone, it's back. No explanations, no returned calls, but since I haven't been back to work yet I can't say there's been no emails. For next year I guess the rule will be not to get sick in January.

This actually leads in quite nicely to the subject at hand, which would be Universal Health Care. The Democrats are already warming up their socialist agenda, so it can't be too far behind. It started out with the bump in minimum wage for everyone except American Samoans (if you can't figure out why that was a Bad Idea, I don't have the patience to explain it to you), but since Madame Hillary has already hoed that row, and since she's bucking for Senior President instead of Co-President, you know it's on it's way. If you think a doctor's visit is expensive now...

This in turn leads into an article on The New Republic by Jonathan Cohn about the Danish welfare state. It's a subscription-required link, which I don't have, but the article is summed up nicely by Mr Cohn's very own statement, "It is entirely possible to have a large welfare state, with generous benefits, without choking the economy." Hogwash.

I won't spend time raking the article, since more expert people than I have already done so. In an article written by former Dane Henrik Rasmussen, it is pointed out that the Danish poor make about as much money as their American counterparts, but from there up the comparison is pretty bleak for the Danes. If you are good at figures, take a look at this; the lowest tax rate for the Danes is 39 percent (as compared to 15 percent here) with the marginal rate of sixty percent. Add to that an 8 percent "labor market support" tax and a 25 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) and you get a low end of 72 percent. That's what the Danish poor people pay for their generous benefits. The rich pay in the 90's (according to His Excellency, 93 percent). But remember, all this government generosity is FREE!

Kind of gives you a different way of looking at FICA, doesn't it?

So how do we avoid that kind of killer kindness from our own whip-holders? By getting on the phone, sending letters, and sending emails, to urge our congresscritters and Senators to support the Fair Tax, bills HR25 and SR25. It won't cut funding off to the gubmint, but it will show us, as a separate line item on our receipts, just how much we are paying for the privilege of being governed.

Robert Heinlein was fond of the saying "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." We would do well to remember that.
"The Doctor" by Luke Fildes