Here’s an article about Warren Buffet’s well-known view that the rich should pay more in taxes. His bottom-line argument is, “If you’re in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%.” I don’t disagree.
My disagreement with Buffet is the implication that being forced to pay more in taxes has any relationship whatsoever with thinking about the rest of humanity. People are not thinking about the rest of humanity when they are being forced to do something. There is no virtue in paying taxes.
This keeps playing out over and over. First, let’s get one thing straight: “luck” is simply preparation colliding with opportunity. You have to not only know what to do when opportunity arises but to be able to recognize it in the first place. Luck can carry you only so far – Buffet is too modest by half. Most people who are in that 1% (or higher) are ALSO those that have worked their tails off for decades. Yes, they are different than most of us in their focus, knowledge, and work ethic. But what should irk many of us is the absolute kowtow to the idea that to feel good about oneself, one should happily pay more in taxes thinking of all the great stuff that Government can do. In this, Buffet is full of himself (and perhaps, other stuff as well). Wanna feel good? Give from your heart PERSONALLY (and not through a phalanx of lawyers and accountants calculating net income vs taxes) to charities – or your own. Giving money to Government solves nothing.
But if you think that is the proper way, well…..wait for it….just right a check, hypocrite. The Government will take your money whether you owe it or not – they don’t care (which should be your first hint of wrongness – they really don’t care. People running charities do). If you have such an amount that you don’t want it, some bureaucrat will take that check from you. If you dare.
But no, you won’t – collectivism doesn’t work that way. Instead, you not only surround yourself with those that think like you on higher taxes but want the Government to take from others that totally disagree with your demand that they be relieved of their wealth simply because you want to feel good about yourself.
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
