The State vs. Taxpayers

In an earlier post, I commented on the general worldview held by the editors of The State:

According to The State, taxes are never high enough, government spending is always too low, and people should never be allowed to make their own choices with either their money or their lives.

To a great extent, this blog documents the persistently elitist, obnoxiously paternalistic, and vaguely authoritarian outlook that pervades The State, from its opinion pages to its "straight" news stories. But don't take my word for it, here's The State editorializing today:

Just as it would be hard to justify a tax that is effectively among the highest in the nation, it’s hard to justify having one of the lowest taxes in the nation. And like our anemic cigarette tax, our gasoline tax is knuckle-scraping low.

Did you hear that? Having the lowest taxes is "knuckle-scraping" e.g., primitive or gauche. Having low taxes is not like being the smartest student in class or the prettiest model on stage or the tallest dude on the basketball court. Low taxes, says The State, are nothing to brag about. Taxes are not bad after all. Therefore, you should learn to stop worrying and love the taxes. You didn't want all that extra cash anyway and besides, your family didn't need it. You wanted other people—people with opinions more like those of The State—to decide what to do with the money that you earned.

That's The State's worldview: if you want to keep the money that you earned, you are an old-fashioned, backwards, uncivilized, greedy buffoon; a mouth-breathing troglodyte who wouldn't know their own enlightened self-interest if it bit them in the patoot. Better to let the progressive people at The State—and in state government—take care of it.

Will South Carolinians succumb to The State's siren song calling for higher taxes, bigger government, and more laws for us to follow? I sure hope not, but only time will tell.

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