Obama wants to share your Legos

Wow! It looks like you’ve worked very hard here. I’m just gonna take half of your Legos and pass them out to some of the other kids that have been napping all day.

I laughed, but this whole “I don’t want my taxes supporting the lazy” issue is more complex than the poster implies.

I work and pay taxes. I drive on roads that I and many others paid for with taxes. I also pay for wars and other government activities I don’t support.

What I want is to pay taxes only for things I support, but that can never happen in a democracy. I would love not paying any taxes at all. That also cannot happen in a democracy where we have and depend on public services of various kinds.

There will always be tension between paying too much and paying too little in taxes–and that tension is healthy and necessary in a democracy because it means (I hope) that no one minority extreme gets its way. We find a middle ground.

Not sharing or giving up any of your “Legos” is an extreme. Sharing or giving up all your Legos is another. Negotiating exactly how many to share is democracy.

via SodaHead – Obama & Legos.