Asymptosis

Without actually using the word “hypocrite” Megan McArdle makes the following assertion in her latest post on people who are in favor of higher taxes, Tax me more.

In other words, they don’t so much want higher taxes on themselves, as to purchase the good “State coercion of other affluent people”.

I posted the following as a comment on FreeExchange but find I’m so self-admiringly fond of it (not a pretty sight, I know) that I’m offering it here as well.

Megan ties herself in contortionate knots to explain (or…obfuscate?) a rather simple and rational piece of individual reasoning:

If I enter into a contractual relationship with others, agreeing that we’ll all contribute to a public good, we can all have that good. If that “good” is ICBMs, school districts, or monetary policy, there’s no other way we can get it.

I and the other individuals aren’t buying the good of being able to coerce other individuals into buying a good. (Phew! ‘djyou follow that?)  We’re buying…the good itself.

The contract is negotiated and re-negotiated through the sadly fumbling and inept methods of democracy. (Note to self: don’t quote Churchill here.)

(Is contortionate a word? Oughtta be. Contortuous?)

Related posts:

1. Teddy Roosevelt on “the true conservative”
2. I Guess the Right Wing Hasn’t Been Paying Attention for the Last Thirty Years
3. State Taxes and Prosperity, Revisited
4. Pubs and Economic Opportunity: Not