Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Search / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

Wishing You Health, Prosperity, And Happiness In The New Year And Beyond (Part 2 – Prosperity) by Theresa Fritz Camoriano

The legislature is in session, so hold onto your wallets!  Does anyone actually believe that we can become more prosperous by being taxed more?  Apparently people do believe it, because politicians and lots of left-leaning news folks keep saying it. 

Once we have paid for the basic government services of military defense, police, and courts, which defend our lives and property, most additional taxes and government spending only serve to impoverish us.  Most so-called government “investments” that are made with our tax money are very wasteful and frequently are not even spent to achieve things we would support voluntarily. 

For example, how does it make us better off to be forced to subsidize businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and manufacturing facilities?  While our elected officials regularly tell us we have to make such “investments” in order for our communities to prosper, that simply is not true.  If we wanted to support such businesses, we could do so voluntarily.  When we are forced to support them through taxation, we lose the money we would otherwise have used to support the businesses or causes we actually want to support.  And this makes us all poorer. 

No sooner has the new Louisville government taken office than we are told we need a tax-supported arena and a practice facility for the University of Louisville basketball players.  While arenas, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses are certainly wonderful additions, they should not be funded through force (taxes).  Instead, they should be funded on a voluntary basis.  Private groups of entrepreneurs or others who believe that these facilities would receive extensive public support should pool their resources, build the types of facilities they think best, and then earn a profit by serving their customers.  Or, people who want to donate facilities to the University should pool their money and make the donations.  The risks and the profits should be borne by those who make the decision to build.  Otherwise, we will just continue to build monuments to politicians on the backs of the taxpayers, creating waste and poverty in the process.

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest / Search / White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN