Townhall.com, Where Your Opinion Counts
Talk Radio:   Bill Bennett   Mike Gallagher   Dennis Prager   Michael Medved   Hugh Hewitt   
BREAKING NEWS  LeftArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican   RightArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican  
Columns, funnies & more in your inbox!
Login | What's Hot
  • Check the boxes and send us your email address to receveive your free newsletter
  • Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
  • Townhall.com’s weekly inside scoop on what’s happening behind the scenes in the world of politics. When news breaks, we report.
  • Signup to receive the latest daily Townhall cartoons
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Warren Throckmorton :: Townhall.com Columnist
Obama and the S-Word
by Warren Throckmorton
Forward Print Share Single Page
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
[+] Text [-]
 
 
Poll
With unemployment at 10.2%, what will happen by the end of Obama's first term?



Recently, at a campaign stop, Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber from Toledo, Ohio, asked Barack Obama if the candidate's tax plan would raise taxes. Senator Obama replied, "It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success too." Obama added, "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Surely, now it must be time to talk openly about the S-word - socialism.

For months, conservative bloggers have been writing about Barack Obama's membership in the New Party, a political movement aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. The New Party endorsed his successful 1996 Illinois state Senate campaign and Obama encouraged New Party involvement in his voter education and registration efforts. According to a 1995 issue of the Democratic Socialists of America newsletter, the New Party required endorsed candidates to sign a contract to have a "visible and active relationship" with the party. While the New Party has waned, the Democratic Socialists of America remain an active movement.

What do the Democratic Socialists of America believe? According to their by-laws, they

...share a vision of a humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality and non-oppressive relationships.

Surely, we can all agree with the values of racial and gender equality and non-oppressive relationships. Free market adherents believe in those principles as well. However, one may now see the intellectual foundation for Barack Obama's answer to Mr. Wurzelbacher. Re-distributing wealth is part and parcel of the Obama tax plan. He just didn't use the S-word.

And why not? Despite periodic, and hopefully temporary, interventions in free markets, (such as is occurring in the financial sector), most Americans do not want to live in a socialist nation. We value the kinds of personal and economic freedoms inherent in a free market economy. Continued...
1 2
| Full Article & Comments | Next >
Share:
Forward Print Single Page
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
 
About The Author
Warren Throckmorton, PhD is an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College and fellow for psychology and public policy with the Center for Vision & Values.
 
TOWNHALL DAILY: Sign up today and receive Townhall.com daily lineup delivered each morning to your inbox.

Join The Debate!

Post Your Comment
(40 comments so Far)
View in ascending order     View in descending order
Reply # 1
Date: Oct 25, 2008 - 8:40 PM EST
Stop shoving important aside 4 trivial
Who cares if Joe is a plumber or not. The important thing was Obama's answer to a good commonsence question.
At least Joe had on his thinking cap, which all of you out there"dumber than rocks" and enamored by Obama's "elequont" speeches, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing, need to pay more attention to exactly what Obama's answer really means.
Stop making Joe the sacraficial lamb to Obama's plan for the destruction of the "American Dream."
Name one 3-4 generation welfare receipient that is even trying to make something of themselves.
I grew up on an indian reservation and can tell you that the Federal Government single handedly destroyed a great, proud and wonderful people. In some cases it took away their identity.
Look around you today. Look at the kooky things our youth wear and how they mudilate their own bodies searching for their own individualism and identity.
Under BO, he will attempt to further strip us of our individualism and identy making all of us, for the good of the central society, like the "Borgs" in the star trek series.
Flag as Offensive

Reply # 2
Date: Oct 23, 2008 - 9:44 PM EST
Ralph On Adam Smith
From what I can assess of Adam Smith’s writings in ‘An Inquiry into the Nature And Causes of the Wealth of Nations,’ your citation needs expansion.

He begins book V, Chapter II, Part 2 by stating that the private revenue of individuals arises from three sources: rent, profit and wages, and that every tax is paid from one of these three sources. When speaking if taxation in general, Smith did write:

“The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

But, he noted in Book V, Chapter II, Part I:

“THE funds or sources of revenue which may peculiarly belong to the sovereign or commonwealth must consist either in stock or in land.”

When he spoke of the direct tax upon the wages of labor , he wrote:

“The declension of industry, the decrease of employment for the poor, the diminution of the annual produce of the land and labour of the country, have generally been the effects of such taxes. In consequence of them, however, the price of labour must always be higher than it otherwise would have been in the actual state of the demand: and this enhancement of price, together with the profit of those who advance it, must always be finally paid by the landlords and consumers.”

He then surmised that direct taxes upon the wages of labor are “absurd and destructive.”

The entire text can be read here:
http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/won-index.htm

While my readings are not conclusive, I am not as inclined to believe that Smith’s belief in progressive taxation applied to income tax but to the taxes addressed in Articles I and II: land and stock.

If anyone has definitively studied this area, I would appreciate your comments.
Flag as Offensive
Sign Up to Post Your CommentsSign Up to Post Your Comments
If you are already registered, click here to login. Otherwise, please take a few seconds to register with Townhall.com. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to post your comments immediately, use the action center, get podcasts, and more!
Note: Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required.
Salutation:
First Name:
*
Last Name:
*
Email:
*
Nickname:
*
Note: Nick name will be shown when you post comments.
Address 1:
*
Address 2:
City:
 *
State:
 *
Zip:
 *
Phone:
       
Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
(Bi-Weekly) We highlight the best opportunities from our partners for surveys, action items and more.