I am a self-employed entrepreneur. I'm busting my ass with this company of one getting it off the ground. I'm going to pay more taxes next April, probably, than I've ever paid before in my life. And I'm fine with the risk of funding deadbeats. I would rather a hundred deadbeats enjoy a new phone than a single person who didn't deserve their misfortune go without a month's rent. The cost of a deadbeat mooching off of the system for his entire freaking life is so much less than what society gains from someone who gets that opportunity and gets somewhere with it. That's a family that succeeds. That's a new business. That's kids that don't get into a life of crime. That's a consumer (and his or her dependents) who support local businesses, driving demand. That's potentially the scientist who discovers a cure for cancer or the businessman who revolutionizes an industry or the greatest statesman in the history of the country, if we roll really high. We get so much more out of this gambit when we win, by such an order of magnitude, that worrying about when we lose seems ridiculous. What does all the welfare fraud in the United States add up to? A couple million? Tens of millions? The country is flush with people who make that much in a month.
Radical Taoist, in the General US Politics Thread, OTC, TV Tropes Fora.
