But does everybody have the same abilities as you? That's what is wrong with your line of thinking - you believe everyone is created equally and we are not. There are a lot of people not capable of your life. They need your help and if you are a true Christian - you should be more than willing to pay your taxes to help these people.
Originally Posted by: DakotaT
There's a difference between being willing to pay your taxes to help others, and...
1. Wanting to help people more efficiently
2. Not wanting further taxation whose funds go to less charitable and more wasteful funding.
Helping those in need is key, but the government being a middleman is usually not required or even ideal. I've seen enough homeless, poor, or college students (see poor) fed by my old church on a bi-weekly basis, and enough groups to build houses and teach people valuable skills for life and employment to know that the more direct the help, the better. Hell, even the new job I started yesterday (a subdivision of a fortune 500 company nonetheless) uses company property as a garden which is used exclusively to feed the needy, and whose every employee is required to participate in at least one company-organized charitable cause yearly.
I'm not saying that government is worthless or doesn't have a role - after all, most people simply help those in their own community, which leaves many people left out. I'm just saying that it's not ridiculous to roll your eyes when the government says that the solution to the inequality in healthcare in this country is a 2700 page monstrosity involving dozens if not hundreds of different entities that need to work together. The bigger the scope of a single project, the more waste that is simply unavoidable. This ties into the conservative philosophy of state rights and the idea that the government is not the solution to every problem. There are basic services that the government needs to provide, that doesn't mean that government can or should fix everything.