James Bovard Quote - Liberty Quotes Blog

"Subsidies entail politicians’ taking the citizen’s
paycheck and then using it to buy his submission."

by:	James Bovard (1956- ) American author, lecturer
Source:	Harebrained Pot and Wheat Decisions, January 18, 2006 http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0510c.asp
Rating:
Categories:	Politics, Taxation, Welfare
	Tweet

Reader comments about this quote:

TRUE and TO THE POINT -- John Striebel, Centennial Wy 1
blatantly obvious -- Mike, Norwalk
You vill submit to having roads, and airports, and national defense. There will always be one who is agaist what every one else wants to do and rather than feeling happy will feel himself in a positon of submission. Like the guy who appears to be in submission to his wife but who himself feels that he is in absolute bliss. -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas
The outrageous farm and dairy subsidies are a perfect example. -- jim k, austin 1
Waffler, what do roads, airports, national defense, or even a remuneration for not growing a certain food stock have to do with: 'if you don't submit to giving up a certain amount of days productive activities, measured by the fruits of your past and current labors (to an alien despot) your future labors will be much more confined'? The answer is nothing - such is a diversion, off topic, smoke screen. There are ways of paying for roads, airports and national defense without having to subject We The People to submission. Governmental larceny is theft and slavery by any other name. The quote could read: Politicians' taking the citizen's paycheck entails submission and allows subsidies. -- Mike, Norwalk 1
Waffler is bought and paid for, obviously a government submissive, and in absolute bliss. How did roads get built before income tax? Currently fuel taxes (lawful excise taxes as per the Constitution) cover all costs of roads and highways. Airports can be built and maintained by the private airlines that will profit from them. National defense expenses cannot be covered by lawful taxes if the military philosophy is 'the best defense is a good offense' and thus 'pre-emptively' wage wars in foreign lands. But when we operate under constant unpayable debt with a printing press for new money, the entire system is corrupted -- those that produce are the suckers while those that live off the productive benefit. Bovard is 100% right on. -- E Archer, NYC
Waffler you should read the damn quote. Or do you not have any idea what subsidies are? -- warren, olathe 1
Subsidies actually entail taking one citizen's money and buying another citizen's submission and vote. Don't we all just love subsidizing tobacco, ethanol, sugar, and on and on...It's funny; subsidies certainly don't make anything cheaper. -- Ken, Allyn, WA
Are not city, state, and national taxes that go to airports, roads, Amtrak subsidies. All of the infrastructure of our society is subsidized by us. By this I mean we all pay taxes for this stuff but may use it differently. Some use airports, roads, and Amtrak more than others, Those who use it more get the benefit paid by those who may use them less. The quote therefore is shallow and sucks. And you guys are even more shallow in you kowtowing to it. Typically of liberty-tree quotes and the responses it endears from the non-thinking knee jerking class. -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas 1
Almost anything that is done by government and paid for by taxes could be done at least as well and usually much better than government. Government by design is inefficient. Competition breeds efficiency, and monopolies, like government, breed contempt for their customers. Those who use the service ought to pay for it, and private enterprise can supply it. The individual retains the choice about what to purchase and when. Government using the taxing authority to purchase things for the common takes away the individual's choice to make economical decisions. When it comes to buying and selling with my own money, I am "pro-choice." Why aren't liberals? Or is it liberals are only pro-choice when the choice is something they want? -- Ken, Allyn, WA
If your model is so great Ken why has it never been exclusively practiced. Was Athens, Rome, Paris, London or New York ever run this way. Wherever men have chosen to live together they have built and constructed together. I agree to the silent hand of Adam Smith to direct some activity but only some. -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas
It's never been practiced because the slave master (i.e. government) benefits from the control of the slave and the product of his labor. Slavery itself is very inefficient in the aggregate compared to a free market economy of creative destruction and entrepreneurial invention, but the slave economy is still very comfortable...for the slave owner: not so much for the slave. -- Ken, Allyn, WA
Ken, I have to disagree with you here ever so slightly, Waffler is very comfortable being a slave; so much so, he would have the vast majority of everyone be slaves (a pragmatic issue, you understand). -- Mike, Norwalk
Ken I image your service for a fee to work like this at least in reference to roads and bridges. When I leave my home I pay a fee to enter the street in front of my house, and when I get the corner for my first turn, I get out and pay a few for proceeding to the next turn etcetera all the way until I get to work. Since all traffic is proceeding in different ways on different roads and I may even proceed on different roads on different days I must pay for each turn and entrance on to a new road. If we pay for common roads through taxes we are in effect paying for the other guy to use roads and he is paying for the roads we use. If I don't drive much I am paying for somethin I seldom use. Is this what you guys mean by slavery, paying for something you don't use. And how would rectify this by puttin tolls at each and every block of each and every street. Am I to assume that y'all have thought this all through. -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas
Waffler will you please look up what subsidies are. Roads and bridges have nothing to do with it. -- warren, olathe
Exactly true. -- Dan, Houston
Waffler asks...Are not city, state, and national taxes that go to airports, roads, Amtrak subsidies.?...the answer is, NO WAFFLER THEY DON'T. That money comes from the "thin air" bankers who then receive our tax dollars as interest payment on the THIN AIR loan they made to the government. This system allows our government to run amok with the THIN AIR LOANS while taking NO responsibility...it's criminal and so are the low lives who collect that money for the THIN AIR Bankers. Say...you're an IRS boy aren't you? -- J Carlton, Calgary
Waffler, please borrow a dictionary and look up "subsidies". If you can't look it up, get someone to help you and read it to you. -- jim k, Austin, Tx
Because of 'subsidies' America is no longer a leader in industry. Manufacturing has all but left the USA. Communist slave labor produces most everything Americans buy while progressives demand a $15 minimum wage from employers as well as the taxing of every transaction between any two parties. Everywhere you look, producers are forced to close up shop because the 'rules' have been fixed to keep them down. Governments need misery! If everything worked fine, we would forget about government altogether. Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure. -- E Archer, NYC
Waffler, two diametrically opposed concepts of paying for items of multiple party use are your collectivist / socialist thought and, sovereign's united. I've not heard a person complain about paying a use tax for road creation or maintenance.“The right to make use of an automobile as a vehicle of travel along the highways of the state, is no longer an open question. The owners thereof have the same rights in the roads and streets as the drivers of horses or those riding a bicycle or traveling in some vehicle.” (House vs. Cramer, 1 12 N. W. 3; 134 Iowa 374 (1907)). Waffler, your socialist concept on individual sovereigns can't do anything on their own or for themselves is a most demonic display contrary to individual sovereign right. -- Mike, Norwalk
-- Ronw13, OR
-- Mary, MI

Bio of James Bovard
More James Bovard Quotes
Books by or about James Bovard
James Bovard Videos
Wikipedia
This James Bovard quote is found in these quote Categories:
Politics Quotes
Taxation Quotes
Welfare Quotes

Quotes & Quotations - Send This Quote to a Friend