I found this comment, from “Poor in Ohio” so poignant in Phil’s last post, I wanted to call other readers’ attention to it:

This plumber Joe is the epitome of greed! Maybe I am a little biased because I am still in college, working a crap job, and maintaining life by chowing down on nothing but Ramen noodles, but I am going to college so that I CAN make 250,000 dollars or more a year, I am spending ludacris amount of money out of hopes to some day even come close to that, and I am very aware that I will spend a good portion of my life trying to acheive that. This Joe is just a greedy man that has no desire in giving anymore than he has to. To this country that gives him the oppurtunity to make that kind of money and even indirectly giving back to those people that are his customers. It’s just disgusting… What ever happend to give a little, get a little?

Here’s the thing Poor in Ohio: Joe wants to hire people to work for him. He doesn’t yet make 250,000 dollars. When he does, you can bet he’ll start hiring more people. Not a lot of people go to college, and they need jobs. Sometimes they have skills, such as plumbing. Those people need jobs. Joe’s doing a service for those people.

Any money the government taxes him on, though, is money he can’t put into his business that pays the wages of employees. The government will then divide up that money amongst a variety of programs that will not be terribly effective.

When the government takes money, it isn’t saying “Help us out here.” It is saying, “We can use this better than you can.” Time and again, it’s proven wrong.