As a member of a country, we receive innumerable benefits imparted by that society–access to the highway transportation system, libraries, public utilities and emergency services, etc. One should contribute to the system.

Just because a poor person “pays taxes” doesn’t mean they necessarily contribute in any substantive way to the system. Many do, but I can state with certainty many do not. Paying taxes with money you’ve been given purely by the government is still the same as paying no taxes–you haven’t PRODUCED anything.

I work with the St. Vincent de Paul Society doing outreach to the poor and needy, during the course of which we meet with them in their homes and look at their finances prior to rendering assistance. It is not uncommon for us to encounter someone without a job, collecting disability, food stamps, and getting ridiculously low rent through Section 8, who nonetheless has no desire to get a job or work to better their situation or that of their children.

In this day and age, a physical limitation on mobility is not a bar to productive employment–many people work from their homes on computer or phone-based systems. Some of these folks are even more mobile than a coworker of mine who works at the school from/in his wheelchair. All of them that I’ve met have more intellectual ability/education than the mentally handicapped I’ve known who held down simple janitorial or customer service jobs (usher at a movie theater). The difference is not one of ability versus inability, but wholely volitional–they have been completely institutionalized into government dependence and learned helplessness. The obstacle to productivity is thus choice that has become a very real and insidious mental illness, not a legitimate handicap.

Everyone who benefits should contribute SOMETHING, and it certainly cannot be said that 47% of America is incapable of that.