I had the following conversation with an associate in my law firm. He's a reasonably bright kid, but always looking to start a debate with the wacky liberal partner. This time, his bait of choice was taxes. "If you raise taxes," he said, "people will lose their incentive to work.""If you take more of what people earn, they won't work as hard, they won't innovate, they won't create the new jobs that keep the economy going."
I answered, "so you don't want a raise? Great. I'll make sure you don't get one this year."
He suddenly looked very confused.