Quote 3 of 11

From The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History, by Jonathan Franzen

... it seemed to me that helping Katrina's homeless victims ought to
be the government's job, not mine.  I'd always voted for candidates
who wanted to raise my taxes, because I thought paying taxes was
patriotic and because my idea of how to be left alone--my libertarian
ideal!--was a well-funded, well-managed central government that spared
me from having to make a hundred different spending decisions every
week.  Like, was Katrina as bad as the Pakistan earthquake?  As bad as
breast cancer?  As bad as AIDS in Africa?  Not as bad?  How much less
bad?  I wanted my government to figure these things out.
		-- pp. 17-18

Tags: job decisions aids centralgovernment payingtaxes breastcancer aidsinafrica pakistanearthquake homelessvictims