Is Taxes and Robbery the same ?
Some people may take the extreme view that taxation is a
form of robbery and they believed it too . It is interesting
to consider how much truth their might be . In the process
we have to touch on the ideas that morality cannot be
contained in words , and principles cannot be applied to all
context uniformly .
Lets clarify this things . If a man took your money against
your will you would probably consider it thief or robbery
in most circumstances . Now, what if he said he was collecting
" taxes " and removed the money from your wallet at
gunpoint ? ( gunpoint here means filling of tax evasion case
against you ) Chances are you would still call him a thief or
a robber . This is what Rep. Manny Pacquiao fighting for .
But what if majority of the people around you voted for the
man as their robber-in-chief and then he took your cash ?
Would that be okay ?
Government Spending
What if all the people around ( other than you ) let their
money take for " good purpose " like educating your kids,
building roads and parks , helping devastated areas etc.....
and they contribute their money too. Would that make it ok?
What if you disagree with how they spent the money like
what happen in our government and the PDAF ?
Would they be justified in taking your money by force or
would it be stealing ?
Would choosing who got to take your money be okay even
if you didn't want to give and they threaten you with
years of confinement in jail ?
There are no clear lines of course even if you believed
we are better off with government and taxation than
without this aspect of civilization .
I don't want men with guns to take me to jail , that's
why I pay my taxes . But honestly , I never once signed
a contract agreeing to pay anything to the government ,
so am I being robbed ?
Conclusion
The logical conclusion is that when a mother who takes
apple from a rich man tree without permission in order
to save the life of her starving son , is acting immorally .
I propose the language fail us in this case and we better
try using it different way . The immoral diction would
be let the child starve ( and at least in the extreme
that suggest a moral argument for welfare program
at taxpayer expense )
We can't ignore arguments just because we don't like
what they suggest about our prior beliefs . After all
it does seem unfair to me to take money for any
purpose justified only by brute force of the mob
( democracy ) and the people they elect to do their
dirty works . I would love it if we found a way to move
toward to a consensual system of taxation .
But I do not want seemingly logical argument to take
precedence over civilization , and the latter happens
to require funding of government at the moment .
There are no easy answer here , and there are many
more questions . Here are four to get you thinking
about whether and when taxation is thief or when it
might become so ;
1. For what purpose or type of purposes can we
morally justified taking a person's money or
property by force or brute of force ?
2. How much of person's money they take based
on the purposes that justify this taking and who
should determine this ?
3. How do they determine how much each person
should be taxed , and if this isn't done fairly
does the process became mere thief once again ?
4. Is there a moral difference between voting for
others to take money from people and doing it
yourself even if used for the same purposes ?
source : www.stevegillman.com
www.increasebrainpower.com/newsletter/html
www.999ideas.com
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