<To whom much is given, much is expected

Given by who? Expected by who? The government? All wealthy people are rich because of the government?*

The phrase is originally a religious one, which was based on the premise that all wealth and success were due to the favor of God, and that a rich person should repay this by doing God's work in charity and other assistance to his fellow man. Perfectly consistent in a Christian or other religious or supernatural context.

In a secular context, it holds no water whatsoever. In fact, if you want to get realistic, the government actually leeches off the creativity, intellect, and hard work of those who create the wealth in this country, with a vast majority of that loot being immediately redistributed to other citizens in return for votes, as opposed to building infrastructure, defenses, or anything else that could be remotely considered a benefit to the wealthy taxpayer.

Of course, we have had a few posters point out that the wealth redistribution keeps the poor from looting the rich themselves. Pretty sad, if that's the best justification you can come up with for the welfare state.

* And before you go down that dead end about the rich enjoying the protection of the police and army, and driving the highways, we dealt with that before, and I'm getting sick of having to post the same responses a dozen times. It doesn't cost ANY part of the government one goddam nickel more to give services to the rich guy guy living on the hill than it does to give those same services to me, or to the guy living in a one-room walkup. In fact, the rich guy pays a lot more to cover other citizens than he does to cover himself.

Heck, considering what the rich pay in taxes, the guy on the hill should have his own private fire department.