Wealth Distribution

When I was in middle school I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh.  I have always had an interest in politics and Limbaugh was a readily accessible outlet for that.  He was on from Noon to 3:00 P.M. so I would come home from school around 2:30 and listen to the last thirty minutes.  Looking back, the show was good for me in the sense that it kept me interested in what was going on in the world and abrest of important political issues.

Since middle school my political views have changed in a lot of ways.  I remember turning on Limbaugh at some point after college and not being able to listen for very long- not because I was angry, but more so because his commentary was based on such simplistic principles and generalizations about society.

This morning in Income Tax class there was a short but heated discussion of the progressive rate system for income tax- I was alone with one other girl in class defending the system, despite the fact there were numerous examples in our casebook of how the flat tax system with no deductions would lead to some rather absurd results and open the door to serious abuses.  The thing I was struck by as far as my classmates defending a flat tax had such simplistic arguements- I was expecting more than, "Communism doesn't work."

The world is complex and government and society need to accomodate that.  I believe that a lot of unfortunate acts in human history have come from a strong desire to adopt a rigid simplistic ideology.

Comments

[Matt]

Rush Limbaugh after school? That is funny to here as my afterschool activities consisted of bong hits and acid trips. Regardless, you make an excellent point as far as generalized arguments, which in this context are more or less regurgitated cold war propaganda. Truthfully nobody knows how well socialist ideas would work in our system, and the "communism doesn't work" argument fails to take into account the fact that nobody is suggesting the complete abandonment of capitalism, but merely melding the successful aspects of all economic theories into a system that is more beneficial to all. I have never and will never understand the idea of picking one side of an argument (here economic but it surfaces throughout daily life) and then holding true to that side just for the sake of picking a side. Why not learn from the opposite viewpoint, as we all know there are good points to both sides of an argument.

[J.P.]

You are infinitely more badass than me Matt.

Communism doesn't work? Uhhh... is Capitalism?
hehehehe. Apparently not.

Communism doesn't work? Uhhh... is Capitalism?
hehehehe. Apparently not.