I agree that nobody should be denied health insurance because of preexisting conditions. I also think it reasonable for insurers to charge more for people with proven health concerns. Auto insurance companies charge more to people with bad driving records.

The original topic had to do with health care and who pays fot it – and whether for some people it is “free.” VRB -point out to me how the state sales taxes you pay on your cigarettes pays for Granny’s medicare bills. Thanks.

I stand corrected. I read your post too quickly. You asserted that James was incorrect in claiming that half pay no taxes. I agree. My link supports James only as far as half not paying Federal Income Tax. In fact, Americans also pay:

* Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
* U.S. capital gains tax
* Corporate income tax
* U.S. estate tax
* U.S. excise tax (includes taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages)
* Federal unemployment tax (FUTA)
* FICA tax (includes Social Security tax and related programs)
* Gasoline tax
* Generation Skipping Tax
* Gift tax
* IRS penalties
* Local income tax
* Luxury taxes
* Property tax
* Real estate tax
* Recreational vehicle tax
* Rental car tax
* Resort tax (also known as Hotel/Motel tax, occupancy tax)
* Road usage taxes (Commercial Vehicle Operators)
* Sales tax and equivalent use tax
* School tax
* State income tax
* State unemployment tax (SUTA)
* Tariffs
* Telephone federal excise tax
* Vehicle sales tax
* Workers compensation tax

And I doubt this list is exhaustive.

So you’re indeed correct that no one is likely to avoid confiscation. And while any benefits may seem free to the beneficiary, the goodies did indeed come from someone’s life’s effort.

So you and Chris are, of course, right. None of these goodies are free.

As to Chris’ final two questions:

Do you have the right to hold a gun to my head, steal my money, and use it to pay for someone else’s healthcare?

If you personally don’t, then why does the government have the right to do it on your behalf?

My answers are: “No”, and “It doesn’t.”

I also wonder how much of my taxes I’m paying now goes to pay for your parents or grandparents health care. Are you taking all that responsibility for them or finding charities to help them? What would you give up to keep them from getting any government program?

I do not know what land you live in where there aren’t any local taxes.

I think you misunderstood my meaning. To my knowlege, there is very little that is “free”. For the time being the air we breathe is, but little else. Just because the person receiving or taking something from someone else does not “pay” for it doesn’t make it free. This applies to benefits received from the government by those who pay no taxes or negative taxes as well.

As Brad said, TANSTAAFL. Someone, somehow, somewhere will pay the price for your lunch whether you are aware of it or not. The U.S. Has been giving away a lot of “free” lunches, and it would seem that at least some of those who end up footing the bill are getting tired of doing so.

Chris is right, if I don’t have the right to put a gun to my neighbor’s head and take his money for something I need or want, what makes it ok for me to ask the government to do it on my behalf?

During 2006, Tax Foundation economists estimate that roughly 43.4 million tax returns, representing 91 million individuals, will face a zero or negative tax liability. That’s out of a total of 136 million federal tax returns that will be filed. Adding to this figure the 15 million households and individuals who file no tax return at all, roughly 121 million Americans—or 41 percent of the U.S. population—will be completely outside the federal income tax system in 2006.1 This total includes those who pay no tax, and those who pay some tax upfront and are later refunded the full amount of the tax paid or more.

This is just Federal Income Tax, of course. 41% is a lot of dead people and tax shelters.

The only people who pay no taxes are ones who have extensive tax shelters or the dead.

Whatever happened to that Soviet Union, anyway?

TANSTAAFL

Man I wish this site had a “preview” feature for proofreading posts.

Not on an individualized basis. You are either paying for something directly or indirectly via taxes, or you aren’t. If you aren’t, then for you it is entirely free. So can be such a concept as ‘free’ in the minds of individuals.

One of hundreds of examples: I didn’t directly pay for the County public school bus which picked up my kid when she was young. But it was not free for me, because I indirectly pay for it via local property taxes. (And still do, even though my kids no longer ride buses). The migrant workers’ kids who used to ride the same bus, and who live in public housing and who pay no property taxes – well that one, is 100% a total freebie for them. Paid for via a bunch of people like me.

That is one of the problems with our tax structure. If it is true that approximately 50% of the adult populace pays no taxes (I don’t know what the actual number is), then it leads to the unhealty situation (which politicians of both parties capitalize on – but the Dems worse than the Pubs) where chunks of the populace can vote themselves largess from the public treasury (by voting for politicians who promise it to them) the COSTS of which they themselves have not contributed. Accordingly, for THEM, as individuals, there is no incentive for smaller and more efficient and cost-effective government. Or any sort of reduction in services.