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retiredguy123
my point is that, when people pay no tax, they have no stake in the game, and their vote can be bought because they don't care how much money the Government spends.
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Originally Posted by retiredguy123
I agree with everything you said. But, I don't see how it is inconsistent with my point.
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Your point was, if I understood it correctly, that poor people paying no tax were having their votes bought by politicians who supported policies that helped the poor. I am suggesting that it is even less virtuous to have wealthy people having their votes bought by politicians who will support policies that help rich people.
If poor people paid a small tax do you think that would in any way change the economic calculation of whom they would support? Of course not. So your suggestion that non-tax payers are specially susceptible to having their votes bought lacks support. But I am pleased to see we are in basic agreement that all politicians make economic promises in the hope that voters will see how those promises will benefit their own family. As I watch a large percentage of my neighbors cheating within the letter of the law to have their old roofs replaced while railing against welfare mothers and people who don't pay taxes, I see hypocrisy.