Is it really selfish for someone to want to keep the money they worked so hard to earn?

Question

Or is it more selfish to expect the government to take the money that other people worked for and give it to you?

Answer 1

Yeah Brian! You rock, bud! Love the rhetoric!

Answer 2

No it isn't selfish and here's exactly what ends up happening if we allow the Socialists to take over our government:

This is one of my favorites. From Alexander Tyler. No, he wasn't writing about the United States. This quote is well over one hundred years old. Tyler was writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."

Answer 3

I don't mind to support my government but I shouldn't be required to

support anyone who doesn't work as hard as I do. Take your children to day care, work evenings and weekends, doing whatever the 'boss' sets out as your task. There is a group of people who don't understand that idea and I'm not inclined to support them.

Answer 4

Not selfish;-]

Answer 5

Brian my man, I couldn't have said it better myself.  No it is not selfish to enjoy the fruits of ones labor.

Answer 6

It is absolutely not selfish to want to keep what you earn!  I work hard. I sweat, I bleed, I tire to earn the money that I earn and I am exceptionally good at what I do, and proud of how I do it. It is only right that I should be able to keep what I earn, for what entitles anyone else to the fruits of my labor? Why are they not able to harvest their own fruit in the way that I have harvested my own?

I loathe the system that we have, which attempts to steal money from those who worked the smartest and the hardest for it, so that the lazy, the lame, and the incompetant can redistribute the stolen money amongst themselves.

My mother used a great example as a metaphor for the current system of taxes and welfare.  If 'Good Student' studies hard and earns an A+, and 'bad Student' hardly studies and recieves a D-, would it be fair to ask the good student to drop his A to a B so that the bad student could raise his D to a C?

Answer 7

I don't have kids, but I want educated people. I don't have a choice where my tax money goes with education.

I think the war in Iraq is a sham, but I like fighter jets. I don't have a choice where my tax money goes with the military.

Taxes are a necessary evil, and some people need a hand from time to time. Get over yourself.

Answer 8

Let's hope you never get disabled and are unable to work, because with your mind set you would be screwed.

Answer 9

don't you need to pay some taxes to support all the children you pro life people have to pay for ....

Answer 10

Not at all.  I work hard, but I'd like to keep mine too.  I can't.  I don't have accountants and tax lawyers working out the ways I can keep it.  I'm sure you do, however, and good luck to you.

Answer 11

Not selfish at all, it is the American dream.

Wanting someone elses money is just plain greedy and borders on thievery, thanks libtards.

Answer 12

Of course not.

It's just that some people don't "work so hard" to get paid ridiculous amounts...

Therefore, tax hikes for them.

Answer 13

You must really hate the men and women of the U.S. military.  They take more government money than any other group of people.

But as to your question:  Neither candidate advocates eliminating taxation altogether, so this is pretty irrelevant, right?

EDIT:  Brian, you have now directly contradicted yourself.  In advocating pay increases for military personnel, you have now affirmed that indeed, it would be selfish for a person to want to keep all of his or her money instead of giving some of it to the government.  

I think your real position is this:  

"I don't think it's selfish to want to keep the money they worked so hard to earn AS LONG AS the money they keep is not used for a purpose that does not accord with my political values.  When money is withheld, and this results in a loss to one of my pet causes, then it's selfish."

Answer 14

It is selfish to not expect to pay for the greatest nation on earth and the health and welfare of its citizens..

______

Your taxes are not "oppressive", in fact we have a low tax rate among the Industrialized nations.  I cannot see how anyone subsisting off the public dole could be having "excessive" benefits or life style.  If you can't embrace the idea of taking care of your fellow citizens, then I can hardly see why you could care about the country.

Answer 15

That would depend............ are you a Christian???

Answer 16

Good point!  

Answer 17

I would go one farther.  Is it really selfish to want to provide for your family as much as possible?  

Taxes are the only thing that can keep me from succeeding.

Answer 18

I say it isn't selfish for you to keep your money that you work really hard on i mean why in the world would you give money to someone unless they are your friends or if they are in dire need of some money and if you are comfortable with it.

Answer 19

Of course not, unless you're a liberal.  Liberals like to give money to the needy, as long as it's not their money.

Answer 20

No, it's prudent.  If they don't then there will be no more money for the democrats to redistrubute.  I believe Russia had that problem just 20 short years ago.  

Answer 21

A very small percentage of taxes go to welfare.  So yes it is selfish to say "1 dollar of my taxes this year is going to help the less fortunate."

Answer 22

I don't think either is inherently selfish to be honest with you.

Its not selfish for anyone to want to keep something they earned, through hardwork or other methods.  I think to want to keep it while watching others suffer is a form of greediness, I still don't think its wrong.  We don't call ants selfish/greedy for not feeding grasshoppers....

As for 'more selfish' to expect the govt to take money that others worked for to give to OTHERS (the vast majority of citizens work, over 93% by any measure), its not selfish either so long as you personally are giving up and cutting short where you expect others to.....

HTH

Stephen, taxes aren't the only thing keeping you from succeeding....They paid for your schooling, the roads, police, infrastructure, govt backed loans, etc.....  If anything, they provided an avenue for you to succeed.

Wow, 4 thumb downs....usually that big of a difference means I am more right than wrong.

Brian, you're a bright guy from what I've read of your answers to other questions.  We may disagree, but you're still a bright guy.  We ALL have complaints about how 3-4% of our tax money is used, I think that since so little is justifiably griped about taht we must be doing more good than bad.....Thats how I feel the tax issue should be looked at.  We do need social programs for children and the elderly, has to happen.  Part of that will be abused, part of it will be used and some will be left out......Much like military spending.  If 25% of the spending on "defense" went to actual troops we wouldn't have any recruiting issues, but part of the expense gets abused, part of it gets used and some are left out.

Answer 23

Most of your taxes goes to pay for the military (nearly 3/4) and the rest to infrastructure and a tiny amount goes to social programs (most of which is geared to the elderly) .  So you may as well give up the wealth redistribution fantasy because that's all it is.  

The reality is that if you want to live in a first world nation, you have to help pay the bills and compared to other first world nations Americans get off cheap.