You're getting closer to the issue...

How can you simultaneously advocate a "major boon" for investors at the same time you bemoan other boons for other groups? How can you advocate eliminating the gains tax "on the way up" as Scott puts it, while you advocate government compensation for losses "on the way down"? This doesn't sound like a principled objection to government interference, but more like a craven attempt to play the game the same way as everybody else, grabbing what you can from the government.

Point me out a nation that has taxed itself to prosperity. It's a cliche, but like many cliches, true.

Well, ya know those "socialist" European countries you're always dissing? Turns out that in every measure of standard of living except per-capita income, most of them outrank the US. It's a mystery to me why, if we're so rich, we don't have the longest lifespans, the best health, the highest literacy, and on and on. It seems that the US is #1 only in military power and per-capita wealth...and we know that "per-capita" is a slippery statistical sleight-of-hand.

I guess if you define "prosperity" only in terms of money, you might be right. But if you include the broader range of quality-of-life measures, we're not doing so well. Why aren't we getting more bang for our bucks?

--Robert