Why Do we Pay?

1:30 AM. Couldn't sleep. I have class at 10 and I couldn't sleep. It is because of a question. Like all questions it feels like chinese water torture, and I have finally broken and have to write it out because my mind will overload with frustration and contempt. The question:

Why do we pay insurance?

Of course it's a ridiculous question. That's like asking why we have two eyes. "They're just there", and no one's ever doubted why such a thing should exist.

"Mom, why do we pay insurance?", I asked last week while talking about possibly getting my truck for school in Denton.

"We pay so that if we get into an accident, we can have the money to get us out of paying for the damages." she replied. Disregarding the Webster's response, I continue, "but mom, we're required by law to pay for it"

"That's correct", she replied. By now in a phone conversation, people can tell when the other has an agenda. We have talked previously about my truck. Since I live in Denton, there is an insurance discount because even though I'm signed on the truck, if I cannot drive it, there is a discount in the monthly payment.

"Mom, I can't get in an accident if I'm not even driving the thing" I said. It's water on rocks.
"Honey, there's no sense discussing it, you have to pay."

What a thing to say. In the land of free choice and incentive, someone has to pay insurance for a vehicle they're not even driving, for an accident that may not happen. When my mother got in an accident that she didn't cause (a criminal in a stolen car did), her insurance didn't totally cover it. It was the first time I ever remember her getting into an accident. How long had she been paying insurance before one accident caused her to need the money, but "didn't cover fully". I have never heard of anything so incompetent and useless as this.

You are not capable of saving money in case of emergencies, so we will force you to pay for insurance, that may not cover you, or we'll give you a ticket that makes you pay 100 dollars a year for three straight years, or you're going to court (I have received such a ticket). Does that make sense to anyone? Insurance companies are BUSINESSES. These businesses are holding all the cards and are guarding all the doors.Anyone who says otherwise has a knife at your throat or a hand in your pocket.

"Why do we pay social security?"

The idea is more recent than you think. Franklin Roosevelt in his New Deal composed the thing. Now its aim is to "keep people age 65 or older out of poverty." From your first paycheck, a slice of the cake is sent without your approval, to some bottomless well, and make no mistake, if it isn't bottomless now as the U.S. government's largest domestic expenditure, it will be soon. Remember the baby boom after World War II? It's coming, and it's going to hit like a freight train. There will be more older people than younger people to pay for social security. Do not be naive and think that the money you give is kept until you grow old. It is used right now for older people RIGHT NOW.

I know I sound like a political radical, and no one likes talking about this stuff unless you are a pretentious _____, but think about this. Kids are not being good to their parents and housing them. It reminds me of how the education classes I take in school RIGHT NOW convince me to be a parent to high school kids instead of a TEACHER. You are not capable of saving money for your future, so instead we will take it out of your paycheck electronically. It'll be out so you wont even notice it, and you cannot choose to pay or not to pay. And you'll get it, in sixty years. Do yourself a favor and go see Roger at Friendswood Hardware and ask why he has to work there. His social security check barely gives him enough to live by, but he can't get the check unless he makes UNDER a certain amount. So he works the dead end hardware job, picking up just under the line in hours, and receiving his social security check just to LIVE. He has daughters! Wouldn't he want to see them? Wouldn't he want to enjoy their time? No, he had to work with someone like me, in high school. Machinist for 40 years, fire fighter VOLUNTEER, Navy veteran, and you're telling me he's hauling cow manure and mulch with Colton at some mom and pop shop?

Utter nonsense. I can see the whip lash wound right there on the paper.

"Why do we pay taxes?"

The biggest no-no of all these questions. We have never lived in a full Capitalist society. To say we have is a bold face lie. For America, the fight was never Capitalism vs. Communism, but Capitalism vs. Statism. Don't believe me? Definition straight from...Wikipedia, but we all use it and don't act like you don't.

"Statism (or etatism) is a term assigned to political movements and trends that are seen as supporting the use of states to achieve goals, both economic and social. Economic statism, for instance, promotes the view that the state has a major and legitimate role in directing the economy, either directly through state-owned enterprises and other types of machinery of government, or indirectly through economic planning.[1][2] It may refer to the ideology of statism that holds that:

Sovereignty is vested not in the people but in the national state, and that all individuals and associations exist only to enhance the power, the prestige, and the well-being of the state. The concept of statism, which as seen as synonymous with the concept of nation, and corporatism repudiates individualism and exalts the nation as an organic body headed by the Supreme Leader and nurtured by unity, force, and discipline.[3]

The term statism is sometimes used to refer to state capitalism or highly-regulated market economies with large amounts of government intervention. It is also used to refer to state socialism or co-operative economic systems that use the state, through nationalization, as a means of running industry."

This is why we pay taxes

http://www.elapro.net/Fy2009sp.jpg

Copy paste that in a separate web page. It's the federal U.S. budget for 2009. The first paycheck from Friendswood Hardware all those years ago hurt like hell when I realized how much was taken away. "It's not nearly as bad as Europe" people spat as they defended this absurdity. We are not Europe! People did not come from Europe to America to pay for the "Department of Agriculture". Who is the public good? Can you point him/her out? No, you cannot. The only dead sure way you can is to point to everyone but yourself.

Make no mistake, we are in a time where the self-esteem of our life is dictated by the men and women around us. "What do you think of this dress?" "You are not doing enough for service to the poor!" "A Better Life for you Now!" Men cannot take from other men and expect to obtain their respect. A leaf is not a stone. "A is A, or more simply, you cannot have your cake and eat it too."

What do we achieve in a world like this? Imagine a bucket with a hole in the bottom. It does not matter how much water you poor into it, it will never be full, and the level sinks. Ability will never reward merit, only responsibility, or more simply, Cady Herron instead of having to join Mathletes because of her exceptional talent in math because it's "social suicide", fails her tests to get Aaron Samuels to tutor her.

Cheesy movie reference to political policy aside. I'm not going to Glenn Beck you and say, "these are dangerous times", because most of us are at an age where our parents will do that for us, but something tells me we have the capacity for a future.

Who is the Department of Agriculture? And why are they telling farmers how to do something they've done for literally hundreds of years?

Why is 11.97% of America's budget listed as, "Unemployment/Welfare/OTHERMANDATORYSPENDING?"

I wrote this in an hour and with very little research, and I usually write notes when I'm venting from frustration. It will be filled with errors, and probably hyperbole. However, even if you see these, understand how I feel, no, how I think about political issues. Someone in my life has always been the middle man; they make the money, they hold the gun, and I do not stretch that. It is punishment of the good for the sake of being good. Evil is a distortion of good, you can even see that in the Bible. Even if you are not a Christian, these are age old truths.

Do not think I am a raging conservative moron. My political view is listed as "Objectivist" and I'll get around to venting on social issues. Right now, they are the back seat.

"I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."