Josef Stalin and Vladimir Lenin would be proud of their ideological progeny at the San Antonio Express-News. The long-dead communists, whose utopian Soviet state collapsed in disrepute and bankruptcy after an 80-year experiment in tyranny, Â focused on the collective good (as they defined it) outweighing any claim of individual liberty or economic prosperity.
Well, the San Antonio Express-News is opposed a proposed city “roll-back†of property taxes (even though it is less than 1 percent). They say that “individuals benefit from the collective good†(a line no doubt from their Karl Marx quote-of-the-day calendar), and the collective good is defined as growing government to consume every resource possible.
Never mind that the city’s budget is growing by $40 million thanks to appraisal creep. In the minds of the collectivists at the Express-News, there is still just too darn much money being left in the people’s pockets. That’s money bureaucrats, obviously, could spend far better than, say, the hard-working men and women who actually produce marketable goods and services in their neighborhoods and communities.
According to the wise old liberals at the Express-News, “(tax) cuts should not be taken lightly if the city is to grow responsibly.†Responsible growth, in the newsroom, is defined as growing government bigger and bigger.
It is absolutely the case that those places with the least intrusion government have the most economic progress and the greatest standards of living. Conversely, the more intrusive and expensive the government, the lower the progress and the greater the common misery.
