From: foy@aero.org (Richard Foy)
Subject: Re: What keeps me from being Lib. (was Re: FW: news release: abolish IRS)
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 19:01:52 GMT

In article <rdippold.703451296@cancun> rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes:
>foy@aero.org (Richard Foy) writes:
>>In article <rdippold.703367531@cancun> rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes:

>>>exactly of having to work with congress as well.  You can bet that if
>>>suddenly there was a L president and congress you'd see income taxes
>>>gone like that <*snap*>, and spending as well.  As it is, since that
>
>>Are you serious? IF by some stroke of magic it did happen government
>>spending would be gone overnight. I am appalled.
>
>Well of course you are.  You've made it quite clear in your previous
>postings that you think bigger government is a Good Thing.  This would
>certainly stop the progress towards your socialist paradise, and I
>don't see how you would be anything but apalled.
>
>
...
>
>First, that's incorrect.  Not all government spending would cease.
>However, the next things to go would probably be government favoritism
>of certain industries, trade barriers, and plenty of government red
>tape.
>
>
>>I suggest that there would be chaos, worse than what is now happening
>>in The ex Soviet Union. Millions of people without jobs.
>
>Getting rid of it does not mean that it has to go this very day.  The
>legislation needs to pass immediately to get things going.  However, the
>optimum solution would be to pass legislation immediately to cut back
>government spending and taxation.  However, that law could and should
>phase it in over a period of a year.  Companies and individuals could
>and would expand during this time, knowing that their tax burden has
>decreased hugely and that they don't have to put the money away for
>taxes next year.
>
>
>>A stock market that no longer functions
>
>Oh, please.  Right.  And the moon would cease orbiting the earth if
>libertarian budget cuts were made.
>
>>no more defense capability, etc.
>
>Not true, either.
>
>
>>There would be coups, revolutions, insurecctions, riots, or you name it.
>
>Let them riot.  The ones doing the rioting are going to be the
>nonproductive members of society who were on the government dole.
>Plus outraged socialists, but they're for gun control anyhow, no
>threat there.
>


I must have misunderstood you. When you said, "with a L president and congress 
you'd see income taxes gone like that <*snap*>, and spending as well." I sort
of assumned that <*snap*> meant much faster than a year.

"Let them riot." Perhaps you don't remember the riots of the late 60's.
If you did you probably wouldn't be so cavalier in your dismisal of riots.

Incidentally, I am not a proponent of big government. I do believe that one
should be very careful about how one tears down a structure that has been
in place for so many years. A also do believe that there are some valid
things for government to do.

You might consider what has happened in some of the East European countries,
when things have been dismantled <*snap*>. East Germany, Poland, 
Czechoslovakia, all are not doing so well, in several years.

Richard Foy           Standard Disclaimer