One of the great thing about the new LifeHealthPro.com website is that making comments here is pretty easy, and we’re starting to attract some interesting new commenters.
A couple of weeks ago, in blog entry about the difficulties I have when thinking about what government should and should not do about long-term care (LTC), I lured in some commenters by mentioning Ayn Rand.
I noted the famous story that Rand had received Medicaid and Social Security benefits toward the end of her life, and it suggested that it seemed as if Rand might have decided that the government has some role to play in helping the elderly.
RadCap, a reader who knows a lot more about Rand than I do, explained that Rand believed she was just getting back what the government had stolen from her.
There are many people who like Rand’s ideas, such as former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who seem to accept the idea that some taxes are a necessary evil.
RadCap is a purist. RadCap argues that imposing any mandatory tax is a crime against the taxpayer, and that the government should finance any of the few functions it ought to perform, such as running the court system, with user fees.
On the one hand: 100 years from now, RadCap’s position may seem to be as obviously true as the idea that slavery is immoral now seems to us.
On the other hand: I’m not sure if it’s really possible to convert our country into a no-tax country.