Comment by analog31
5 months ago
If a tavern puts out a sign saying "free beer," nobody needs to point out that someone is paying for the beer. There's no confusion about this.
5 months ago
If a tavern puts out a sign saying "free beer," nobody needs to point out that someone is paying for the beer. There's no confusion about this.
I know this sounds cold, but the people who most utilize "free" things are the absolute least likely to understand it's not free.
Most people think the state is a machine of infinite money, and the only thing preventing $1 million checks in the mail to everyone is corporate lobbyists protecting the elite.
It's a completely absurd claim that "most" people think the only reason the government isn't sending million dollar checks is hoarding.
The government spending too much and the debt being large is an extremely popular talking point, at least half of everyone would say "the federal government should spend less than they do" much less million dollar checks for every person.
I don't know if I have ever met someone in the ~40% of Americans who don't pay income tax, complaining that their government benefits are going too far.
The people who complain most about government spending are the people who pay a lot in taxes while only directly getting a fraction of it back in useful services. Taxes for roads and police? No Problem. Taxes for rent subsidies? Icy.
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I think there is a lot of confusion about it. You overestimate people. :P I wish it was a case of me underestimating people, but after the things I saw...
You are overestimating people. I've met several people with higher education who don't understand that trade-off. They see the world as a fight between good guys who want to give the society free stuff and the bad guys that want to make money out of it.
A tavern isn't funded by taxes. They're giving away their own money. A government doesn't have its own money, it is giving away tax payer money.
It's less so the taverns own money and more so that the food, wine, bar (or future visits) subsidize the beer, ie the food is taxed so that the beer is free.
Same with credit card rewards, they're not paid for by the bar, they're paid for by volume at the bar, debit/cash transactions, and the savings on cash controls, and the people that can't payoff their credit card bill.
An economy is not a zero sum game.