Avedon Carol, commenting on the Gary Farber post referenced in my previous post:
I agree with the sentiments expressed in this post wholeheartedly, though I'm surprised to see them expressed that way. But healthcare is a subject I have serious moral clarity about. It's a pity conservative morality holds taxes to be of greater importance than matters of life and death.
I'll note that we've moved from dissing libertarians to dissing conservative morality, and misguidedly so. (See here.) But what jumps out is the idea that taxes are not matters of life and death. Like every aspect of economic policy, taxes can destroy wealth and prevent its creation.
Nothing kills like poverty. Taxes which punish wealth and retard economic progress kill people, to put it plainly. You can argue what tax policies work best, but you should first acknowledge that poor tax policy can do tremendous harm, and that's something I'd consider to be profoundly immoral.
Posted by Walter at January 12, 2005 01:03 PM