To quote:

George,

I don’t really have a problem with government security agencies having a picture of my face, fingerprints, SS#, body type, shoe size…whatever. What are they going to do with it? I have nothing to hide…Actually, me and millions of others have chosen to have our  faces plastered on as many sites as possible.

My entire present day life is there for anyone to look at on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, my public web site, business cards etc., etc. I want people to recognize me. It is part of my personal business model. 

However, for some people, it’s never OK until it’s OK. That is, until they have a theft, assault, fraud,  or Heaven Forbid a kidnapping or worse. Then, we all want our local authorities to mimic the Person Of Interest scenario and hunt those bastards down by any means possible. When I had my car broken into recently and my tablet stolen, I was right there with the police viewing the security cameras in our Club parking lot watching how it all happened…hoping that the hooded hoodlum would show his face just long enough for the police to identify him.

When it comes to Government funded security, there just are too many conspiracy theories out there. Besides, it’s not as if this is all new. Authorities have had each and everyone of our pictures for decades in the form of Drivers licenses….and I applaud the way that has kept us a bit safer in terms of check fraud, (checking ID to ensure it’s you writing the check…back in the day when checks mattered), keeping minors, for the most part,  from buying liquor, and proof of ID anywhere else.

It was an analogue way of doing things, we complied and never really gave it much thought… and now that we are more digital or virtual about it…changing with the times…upgrading the system…analogous to switching from VHS to streaming video and we get all freaked out about it. Do they have more information about me? YES!…Do I care? NO! Hell, if they want all of my buying habits, income and expenses, I will let them do my taxes for me too. I hate that anyway.

And let’s talk taxes while we are at it. As I sat in Highway 101 traffic the other day, I was listening to some libertarian wacko on the radio…Then, I I looked up at the sky and saw planes lined up to land at SFO, I scanned my surroundings and looked at all of the infrastructure around me too,. Sound walls, barriers, asphalt, signs, lights, etc…and felt gratitude that there was a government providing this to us. I began to think that my taxes are a way of paying it forward to provide services for everyone. What is the alternative?

If the libertarians got their way, could you imagine how much airline tickets would cost if the entire air transportation industry was privatized? Or, for that matter how safe would it be to fly at all, if corporate shareholders were trying to squeeze out a profit by cutting back on let’s say,  air traffic controller or TSA services?

Without government intervention and investment, airline gate rent would skyrocket to include and subsidize a bigger portion of investor expenses. That would affect the price of an airline ticket to you and me to include the high cost of airport real estate and the billions of infrastructure surrounding it, air traffic control, baggage services, ticket services, security, etc. While that is done now, it is under the strict guidelines and rules of the FAA…which would probably not exist in a libertarians world. A for profit airport would have it’s own guidelines tied to shareholder interests. “OK Mr. Ure, the price of a ticket to fly to see your kids in Seattle will be $4,000 a piece for you and your wife….How would you be paying for that sir?”

If roads were privatized, how much would it cost for me to drive on any road? Would local police or fireman want your credit card # before they investigated a crime or put out a fire if they were for profit? Would there be parks? Breathable air? Drinkable water? Beautiful and zoned urban developments like the boulevards of Paris or my own favorite…The Embarcadero in San Francisco? For those that can afford it…probably…For those that couldn’t? They would be screwed.

No! My guess, our world would look Dystopian…Communities right out of the Hunger Games.

So yes…today, I had an extra appreciation and gratitude for paying taxes. It’s my way of paying it forward to society, so that we all…rich and poor, sick and healthy… can benefit equally. I feel much better just thinking about it.

The point of my rant is that in the end…we will all pay the Man anyway. I, personally would rather pay my government that has a two party system to go back and forth and try to come up with a  viable solution that, in theory benefits all.

____________________

There is so much wrong with Mark in the Bay Area’s thinking I don’t know where to start. He’s living in a fantasy world where the government was and always will be composed of good guys, and has the people’s best interests at heart. He has nothing to hide? Fine, then let him wallow in his ignorance. The average American commits 3 felonies a day. Whether he is prosecuted or not depends on the benevolence of the Government and whether or not he’s crossed paths with a petty bureaucrat.

But so what if he chooses to make all of his business public? Why should my tax dollars be spent on violating my privacy just because he’s ok with it?

I’m sorry he had his car broken into and property stolen, but how does that justify treating everyone like potential criminals?

It has nothing to do with going from analog to digital. The privacy concerns were just as valid during the analog days, only people such as Mark weren’t even conscious of it. Now that things are “digital” the privacy violations are more in your face and so is the debate. The www is exposing more people to more ideas.

Yes, let’s talk about taxes and those “wacko” libertarians. The primary tenet of libertarianism is the Non-Aggression Principle. One has no right to use force except in self-defense. Keeping that in mind, “Government,” at its most primary level, is violent force and the threat thereof. That is its hammer of last resort in its toolbox.

If one has no right to initiate force except in self defense, then one has no right to initiate the force that is Government against another except in self defense. One cannot delegate to another a right one does not have. If I can’t come up to you and threaten you with a gun and demand money then how can I elect someone to do the same thing? When it comes down to it, that’s what taxes are. Extortion.

OMG! If there’s no Santa Claus then how will the children get their toys?! That’s what the argument about roads, etc boils down to. (Are people so stupid that they can’t figure out a way to make it work without “Government”? If they’re that stupid, why are they voting for the leaders?)

Let me see if I understand this correctly… Things would be bad in a libertarian world because there would be no government subsidy. One would pay $4000 for an airline ticket because that would be the market price, for example. Where does that government subsidy come from? If the government produces no wealth then that subsidy is wealth skimmed from the producers. So… the people who are complaining about how much a ticket would cost are really saying that they want everyone to chip in and pay a bit to defray their cost.

Mark seems to be the typical liberal and I feel sorry for him. He lives in such a terrifying world. All his neighbors are potential criminals and if he doesn’t throw virgins into the volcano all hell will break loose.