Gavin Newsom wants California to be its own nation-state in the Trump era

[TCROW]

It is? So all those people who were forced to buy health insurance or pay a penalty didn't really have to do that?

And you can drive a car in Maryland without purchasing insurance? Who knew?

I guess everyone can cancel their homeowners insurance now. Whew!



Newsflash: so can the insurance company.

You do have a point there with obamacare. Bad laws sometimes get enacted. But the reality there is that when the rubber hits the road you didn’t really need to buy it. As long as you weren’t due an income tax refund, there was no practical way for the government to collect that fine. So the details do matter, and again, just because there are some features in common you can highlight between SS and more traditional insurance products, still doesn’t make SS insurance.

And Midnights point about insurance being voluntary has to do with ownership of a car or a house being voluntary, not the purchase of the insurance products you have asked your elected officials to mandate for certain purchases.

I’d have thought that was a pretty obvious point.

 

[GURPS]

It is? So all those people who were forced to buy health insurance or pay a penalty didn't really have to do that?

so is paying SSI

 

[vraiblonde]

And Midnights point about insurance being voluntary has to do with ownership of a car or a house being voluntary, not the purchase of the insurance products you have asked your elected officials to mandate for certain purchases.

That is an argument along the lines of, "Well you don't HAVE to have a job, so paying income taxes and OASDI is voluntary."

The reason we have all these nanny government confiscation things is mainly because people are irresponsible and stupid. They won't take care of their own business, then they prevail upon the public when crap goes south. OASDI is a perfect example of this.

People don't plan for getting old and not being able to work, and nobody wants to see a bunch of old people out on the streets begging for food, so we're okay with the gov making everyone kick into a retirement fund. And, as government programs are wont to do, it took on a life of its own and became a wreck, and here we are. It wasn't a very well thought out plan to begin with and FDR was no Thomas Jefferson when it came to foresight.