rudd labor may hit miners, page-80

people who work pay their taxes.

That aside, it is a worry to read of people saying things like "my taxes pay for this", "I don't want to pay for that", etc etc. It is a sure sign of "what is there for me" mentality.

It is in everyone's long term interest that we have a stable society, that everyone who lives in it feels he/she has a stake in it. It is not in anyone's interest for a society to have a significant layer of have-not who feel they have nothing to lose and may decide to take what they do not have by force, that is when we will have social instability, leading to political instability, and everyone will be the loser.

Of course there will always be some people (from the rich, and from the poor) who try to exploit the system for their own selfish end. It is a problem as old as the oldest profession in the world.

I have no problem in seeing my taxes going towards the needy, firstly for the reason stated above, and secondly out of my own philosophical belief that it is good to put back, whenever I can, what society has given me.