I am sure I am not the only one who did a double take when they first heard that taxes were apparently an agent of socialism and wealth distribution. Firstly, I guess it makes sense in a roundabout way, but I really wonder if anyone who uses "tax raises for the rich" as a tenant of socialism really understand what socialism is.

For those who don't know, socialism isn't, and was never meant to be, related to taxes. Socialism is the control of the means of production. This means that the rich isn't just taxed, their property are forfeited to the workers and the socialist board which now controls the output and distribution of wealth of the factory.

Taxes are something completely different. Taxes are simply the means by which the government gets money. The money we collect from taxes are used to benefit the entirety. When we build roads in order to increase both commercial and individual transit, that helps everyone. When we increase funding for hospitals and schools, that helps everyone. When we bailout a gigantic insurance corporation, that hel....well, indirectly helps everyone. How anyone can claim that an agenda of restoring the tax burden for middle class Americans to their pre-Bush levels as a charge of socialism is honestly beyond me.

Does this mean that everyone pre-Bush was a socialist? Bill Clinton? Ronald Reagan? Dwight Eisenhower? Harry Truman? 

And really, wasn't it Theodore Roosevelt who claimed that the rich owes an especially great burden to the government for he derives the most benefit from its existence? Wasn't it Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, who said progressive taxes are an absolute necessity for the health and wealth of a nation? Heck, even Milton Friedman recognized that Consumer Spending is 70% of the market and to burden those who spend is antithetical to a continually strong economy.

I just don't understand how this line of reasoning can still be used on the campaign trail or why any self-respecting journalist would allow it to continue unchallenged.

And then I realize people still cover Joe the Plumber (and his various other occupational friends like Tito the Builder) and Sarah Palin.

Election 2008 - Never have those so incompetent been bestowed so much attention.