Replies

The point of the 'Fair Tax' comment, along with gold standard, immigration, etc, was that all of the politicians are promising us 'government' solutions to fix everything. All (yes, I mean all) our candidates are saying the most terrifying sentence in the English language: I'm from the government, I'm here to help. For some reason, Conservatives are accepting it because it was qualified with their issue deJour.

The point of the 'Fair Tax' comment, along with gold standard, immigration, etc, was that all of the politicians are promising us 'government' solutions to fix everything.

Gotcha. This reminds me somewhat of one of my favorite quotes. Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy...

"The major problem - one of the major problems, for there are several - one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather or who manages to get people to let them do it to them To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must WANT to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem."

The sad reality is that if a politician ran on "the government shouldn't concern itself with that. Figure it out yourself.", while smart people like you and me would love it, the idiots that make up the great majority of Americans would be horrified and reject it. I think a good compromise is a Fred Thompson-esque "keep the federal government out of things but have each state decide their role in people's lives" appproach.