Scrymarch . # .

The Stone Soup Argument of Government Services: This is basically the argument that unless the middle classes see government largesse going directly to them they won\'t support broader, progressive taxation efforts to the less well off.

I find this ridiculous and ultimately patronising.  If government services like a public health service are worthwhile - and I believe they are - they can be paid for directly.  No leviathan-knows-best shell game where the government takes money away just to give it back to you as, say, family payments, should be required.

The reason given for the tax merry-go-round is always care for the needy in society, but the result is always the expansion of central government and the creation of obligated clients in the polity.  And for what?  So my $5 note can go to Canberra and come back to my own pocket as $4?  For some reason that fails to make my chest swell with the spirit of collective solidarity.