September 16, 2008

NEIGHBORLY

I caught parts of the Obama interview with Bill O'Reilly, but since I already know I'm not going to vote for him, I didn't go out of my way to hear what else he has to say. So I was surprised when Oda Mae sent me this Jacoby article with a quote I didn't hear the first time around.

Well, I guess I'm just not very neighborly.

"If I am sitting pretty and you've got a waitress who is making minimum wage plus tips, and I can afford it and she can't, what's the big deal for me to say, I'm going to pay a little bit more? That's neighborliness." If that is Obama's rationale for making the tax code even more steeply progressive than it already is, it's no wonder voters are having second thoughts about his economic aptitude.

"Neighborliness." Perhaps that word has a nonstandard meaning to someone whose home adjoined the property of convicted swindler Tony Rezko, but extracting money by force from someone who earned it in order to give it to someone who didn't is not usually spoken of as neighborly. If Citizen Obama, "sitting pretty," reaches into his own pocket and helps out the waitress with a large tip, he has shown a neighborly spirit. But there is nothing neighborly about using the tax code to compel someone else to pay the waitress that tip.

Taxation is not generosity, it is confiscation at gunpoint. Does Obama not understand the difference?

Posted by: Sarah at 04:07 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 This comment would apply to either this or your last post. Many years ago we lived on a street in a brand new housing development. There were at least 4 young married couples, 6 of whom were junior officers in the Navy. Women weren't able to go on ships back then, but our men did. Two of the men were ship drivers, two were F-14 pilots who deployed on carriers, and Barb and I were general line officers. When a spouse was deployed, those remaining helped the others out, my veggie garden got rototilled when I was 5 months pregnant, the other three wives got help from my husband with their cars, and in general, we helped each other as needed. Making luck... neighborliness or both. Not coerced, but made for good friends that have stood the test of time.

Posted by: HChambers at September 16, 2008 06:09 PM (Fo+sa)

2 Well isn't that cozy? It's not crazy wealth redistribution "...it's jist bein' neighbers!" Please. Spare me.

Posted by: MaryIndiana at September 16, 2008 06:51 PM (fqMCt)

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